White Tree of Coloured Glass Hearts
by Deltadasher
Summary: When forced and bribed to start at the local school for the next two years, Kadaj is mainly confused by the atmosphere around him. 'T' for some later languages and themes. Genre may change later as well... Fic101 challenge on LJ for those that are curious
1. Happy

Okay, if anyone wants to kill me, now is your chance to do it. I haven't been able to update any of my other stories over the past few months because I have had so much work at school. At least after this Friday I'll have no more exams and about eight weeks of Summer holidays. Anyway, whilst they are stuck to my typewriter and disk and therefore trapped only to my typewriter and computer, this one has been going places with me and hence has been able to be updated a little bit at a time to what I have now writen on paper and mostly on my Fontwriter. I have a little more for two of the other fics, but for now they have to be put on hold until next week or something.

And about the currency: it was easier to do it like this (With £££ and not what they used) because I forgot what they use. Sorry, my mistake again. But if you don't like it like that, please give me the name and I'll put it on my livejournal version as well. The figures will stay the same, but at least it'll be a little more correct.

Sorry if they don't seem totally in character, but this is from a couple of months ago when I started it. People have pointed out my errors and I have attempted to clean up their characters over the next few chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Final Fantasy VII: AC connected, but I do own the school, and any characters that you really don't recognise (any others that come in, I'll say I own 'em then to save you the confusion). There are a few of them to get the story going, but this is all from Kadaj's point of view unless someone is just entering the room and is explaining where they were. If you're still confused about something, give me a yell.

* * *

"Be good today and have fun! Believe me; you'll come back feeling much better than you do now!" Grimacing at the cheerful voice of Tifa so early in the morning, every muscle in his being aching painfully after another sleepless night, Kadaj fought the urge to push past her and head back inside the small bar. Instead, he glared darkly, hoping it would be enough to scare the smile from her face, but it seemed to make it grow as she nudged him gently. "Go on, before they leave you behind." 

"But I-" he started, but a figure soon loomed in the doorway behind the brunette that made his words stop in an instant.

"We already went over this Kadaj. You're going," said Cloud, making him grumble in agitation.

"It's to help you with your social skills, and to make sure you know something that'll help you later in life," Tifa added, before pushing him gently towards the small group of children waiting behind him once again. "Now go on, or you'll be late."

Happy? How could going to a crowded building filled with screaming teenagers and ordering adults possibly make him happy? Being stuck in the bar with only a small amount of kids drove him to the verge of mild insanity, and the added sleep deficiency as a result of Denzel snoring in the next room. It was almost hellish, but at the moment he had to persevere since he had nowhere else to go. He needed what they were offering to him, which was basically a roof over his head and the luxuries and safeties that came with it, but that kept him far from happy. Being constantly watched, day and night, and barred from exploring more than five meters from his 'Big Brother' bothered him to the core, but there was nothing he could do about it. Well, at the moment at least. And least he was getting paid for it too. Cloud was a good negotiator when it came to money.

Fighting back a yawn as he followed the group that consisted of young adults that were only half his size, he assumed that he wouldn't be in a class with any of them. Well, maybe there was something to be happy about. Cloud had explained to him the night before about what he would be doing, and about the daily routine that would occur. From what he had bothered to listen to, he gathered that they were all separated into different years, which were then split into different forms, who all went to their classes at different times in different rooms. He wasn't too bothered about his schedule since it was written down on a sheet of paper for him and, according to Denzel, the rooms were easy to find. If he wandered around for long enough, he'd eventually get to the right place, and that was his plan for the day so no one would pester him about missing anything during his first visit.

The walk to the train station was relatively short, the ride itself no more than ten minutes as it sped across the wastelands to the grassy fields nearby, where a large pale yellow building resided near the bottom of the mountains. It looked more like an asylum of some sort by the towering wire fences and the thick iron gates, and soon enough he was passing through them with the rest of pupils from the train. He shuddered to think of what went on inside its walls, the laughter of teenagers of all ages ringing in his ears, easily shattering the fragile walls of his mind that fought to keep it all out. And what made it worse was the realisation of having to spend the day, the whole day, here; with the screams and the yells and the… immaturity.

If this was supposed to somehow lift his spirits, then Tifa had one warped sense of humour.

* * *

It shouldn't have too many mistakes, but if there are I sincerely apologize. It isn't that long either, but then again I had no idea what else to write about in this one. The titles are the words in the list, so you can see what word I'm doing by the title. By the end there should be 101 chapters, so this should be entertaining... 


	2. Feel

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be **copy and pasted** into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

2. Feel

Inside, it was no better; they were dominating the halls, crowded in corners, lurking beside radiators, hiding amongst the coats and bags abandoned in the cloakrooms. A thousand voices washed over him, though a ring of silence seemed to surround him as a thousand eyes watched him pass instead. But he gave no one a second glance, only the one uncaring gaze that made everyone look away.

Cloud had told him to go to reception once he arrived, so to avoid his wrath when he arrived back later he followed the signs. They pointed him towards a section of the wall that opened up into a little foyer, two plain wooden doors with panes of clear glass separating it from the small square in the corridor where he was stood. Another wooden door lead through the green walls to a yellow room, where several sour looking women were gathered and conversing. He knocked on the top half of the door, which had been opened and left the lower half to stop anyone from entering, and disrupted the conversation they were having and brought their attention to him.

The malice that he could see in their expressions humoured him. Weren't they supposed to give a welcoming feel to the pupils, or help them feel at ease? Unable to hide the smirk on his features, he leant against the door frame.

"I was told to come here for some kind of book," he said, and almost an instant later a green ring binder was thrust towards him.

"Miss Lockheart called us this morning to remind us that you were coming. So your name is Kadaj Strife," they asked, and with a grimace he nodded. That hadn't been his choice... A clipboard was placed on the wooden top of the lower half of the door, and a pen soon afterwards. "Fill this in."

The name had already been filled in for him, and next came his date of birth... Cloud had given him a specific date to use there, so he put that down. Home number, contacts during emergencies, contact numbers, home address, e-mail... What was the point of all this? The pen felt hard and uncomfortable between his fingers, and even he had to admit: his handwriting was difficult to read. It was almost like a very small chocobo had been running amuck across the paper. He sighed and continued. That would be a thing to improve on.

Subjects? There were many listed, and in brackets above them it said 'circle appropriately'. Looking through them, he ran the pen tip around them until he had highlighted four. At least his circles were tidy.

Sparing no moment to let him read over it again, the curly haired witch pulled it from his grasp with thin bony fingers, and glanced over it before looking at him suspiciously.

"Black Magic Studies, Ancient Stone and Creatures, Duelling and Weapon study, and Physical Education? Your teachers have been informed of your arrival, and have prepared all the work you will have missed up until now. Write down your lessons and not all homework and important occasions in the contact book. Your registration room is the Physics Laboratory, in the Science corridor, your hook number is 404, and ask one of the other six formers where the common room is." With that, she turned away, and above him came the shrill ring of the bell through the school. Almost instantly, everyone moved and departed from the halls, leaving him to look at the signs once again to navigate to the Science corridor. Somehow, in the pit of his stomach, he had a feeling that things would either take a turn for the better or the very worst the moment he entered his new registration class.

R&R


	3. Awake

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

3. Awake

They all watched him as he neared the correct door, just like when he had first arrived with the others on the train. But now he couldn't give them the cold glare and walk past. He had to keep in close contact with them all if he wanted to survive. Going to the furthest desk inside the room he threw his bag upon it before falling into one of the tall blue chairs, and flicked through the pale green book he had received. It was dull the whole way through, the only part that could possibly hold no use whatsoever being the four pages of lined paper at the back titled 'Notes'. He sighed as he closed it again, brushing his silver veil of hair from his ice blue eyes. They were still watching him.

"Good morning everyone." A tall, balding man stepped into the class, carrying a green folder in his hand which he soon placed on the desk at the front. There was a murmur of a reply, but he didn't seem to mind as he picked up a pen and opened the folder.

"Bob?"

"Here."

"John?"

"Here."

"Helena?"

"Here." As he called out carious names, Kadaj took the chance to attempt learning a few names.

There was a distinct difference between the groups that he could distinguish, some looking dark and broody whilst others were bright and animated, leaving a large gap between them where several other students were caught in the centre. They looked like opposites, the black and the white of a grey scale picture, separated by the grey between them. But surely there had to be others, not just the two definitive shades that sat before him.

"Lloyd?"

"..." The class was silent, watching the door as the teacher seemed to wait for something, before it swung open and three people came in.

"Sorry we're late sir," said the girl, with light brunette curls falling loosely down her back whilst the two males in front of her walked straight towards the table he was currently sat at. But they didn't seem to notice him as they dropped their bags on the table top, and the black haired teen raised his hand half heartedly.

"Here." He pulled off his dark red and black coat and threw it onto his bag, before looking up at Kadaj.

His eyes were a vibrant scarlet, easily showing past his razor cut locks as he gazed towards him. Soon enough, emerald and amber eyes were focused on him as well, being the girl and the other boy, who had dark silver hair with black visible as the bottom layer. The girl smiled at him cheerfully.

"So you're the new guy sir was talking about yesterday!" she said brightly, before holding out a hand to him. "My name's Daisy, and these two are Simon and Lloyd," she introduced, gesturing to both. Simon raised a hand in greeting, whilst Lloyd merely raised a finger from his bag in acknowledgement.

"Alright everyone, you have assembly." A groan ran through the class as they all stood up, and as they headed through the door in an uneven line Daisy looked back at Kadaj.

"We'll keep you company, don't worry!"

Stuffed into the hall so early in the morning did not help Kadaj feel any happier towards the thought of school everyday. It was warm inside, even though all the windows were open, and he was packed tight against Daisy and another of his new class which he hadn't caught the name of. On stage, behind the wooden podium, the headmaster was stood with his head held high as he looked down at them all and spoke into the microphone that had been placed in front of him. The monotonous drone of his voice didn't help, and soon enough Kadaj felt like he was falling asleep. The moment he found Denzel he was going to kill him for ever making a noise during the night. His eyes were slowly closing, and he doubted that he would be able to stay awake for much longer. At least he could keep his eyes open, but that didn't stop his mind from wandering.

He was arguing with himself about whether he should leave and hurt all who stood in his way, or stay and have his brain monotoned to death. It was debatable, since he wanted to storm out and leave Edge altogether, but Cloud had threatened to kick his ass if he did anything wrong today, which was quite a threat since Souba had been taken from him. What if he didn't cause so much of a noise, and just walked out? He'd seen other people sitting out in the cloakrooms, so why couldn't he? Shifting he weight, he grumbled quietly in agitation as his foot felt numb. There were chairs right behind them, why couldn't they use them? And why was he stood right beneath a speaker?

"Hey, are you even awake? Come on, we can leave!" His arm was nudged, and he looked at Daisy to his right.

"Huh?" She pushed him gently towards the door.

"Vamoose! We can go now!"

R&R


	4. Friend

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

4. Friend

It didn't take long to return to his bag, and once he did he pulled out his timetable to see what he had first during his day. There was soon a presence beside him, making him turn his head in curiosity before the timetable was pulled from his hand.

"Let's see what we have here."

"Don't worry; this is what she did to us too." He turned to see Simon instead, who stood to his other side, before looking back at Daisy as she examined his timetable.

"...Lucky you, you have a free lesson first! Simon and I have History, so I'm sure Lloyd will look after you in the common room. We'll meet you up there break time, so don't go far," she said, handing the paper back to him before picking her bag up from the table, and linked arms with Simon as they turned to leave the room.

Kadaj looked at the last of the three who was still in his company, who had pulled his red and black coat back on.

"Come on. If you want to know where the common room is, try to keep up," he said, his voice rather cold as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Stuffing the paper back inside before doing the same, Kadaj followed the black haired teen from the room and up the corridor.

Through the sunlight outside, Kadaj began to feel uncomfortable in his school uniform. Pulling the black tie around his neck a little looser, he sighed before pushing his hands into his pockets. He was wondering how the black haired teenager could wear the red and black suede coat in such weather, looking at the item in question in curiosity. It reached to just below his hips, split slightly at the back to make it looser around the bottom, whilst it was fitted around his frame a little better over his main body. His hands were pushed into his pockets, and from where he was walking he could just see the upturned cuffs lined with black silk.

Following the young man in red, he soon reached the large brick building set apart from the main section of the school, at the opposite side of the grounds. There were two floors, though the first floor left a large section of the ground floor's roof spare as it seemed to be cut off from the rest. Through the windows he could see a variety of different pieces of clay work, painted and glazed, shaped into pots, masks or models, all of varying size and shape. Beyond them, he caught sight of a large mess of books, papers, and more books, with a pupil or two caught in between, but he soon passed as Lloyd walked down three steps into the shade. To the left was a short climb before a large flat area of grass, a tall yellow wall and a thick leafy hedge cornering it off from the rest of the school grounds. The path continued past another entrance before leading up a short flight of stairs, the windows plastered with various posters and advertising for swimming lessons or timetables.

It was towards a single door a little closer to them that Lloyd walked towards, a large window inside showing a few lockers and a stairway leading to the floor above. The corridor lead to another door which he assumed allowed access to the clay filled room he had seen earlier, but as they entered it was towards the stairs that Lloyd went. They turned back on themselves around the corner, leading to another simple door at the top, made of a dark metal as a small light added to the light coming through a window near the ceiling. Climbing the stairs with Kadaj a step behind him, Lloyd lead the way into the room after pulling the door open.

"This is the common room."

Inside was a flood of music, loud enough to be understood but quiet enough so as not to truly annoy anyone who didn't want to listen, followed closely by a short pause in conversation. As Lloyd stepped in it started again, but it came back and remained once the door clicked shut behind him. If this was how he was to be greeted each time he entered he would rather stay outside.

"Come on, or she'll kill me if I don't introduce you soon." Lloyd came back and caught his arm, pulling him towards the opposite corner of the room. The conversations soon began to increase in volume once again, the occasional eye glancing back at him warily, except for one person.

Sitting at a table in the far corner of the room, leaning over a desk with a pen in hand, scribbling furiously across the paper in front of her, was a brunette in a large black jumper, dark brown hair falling an inch or two past her shoulders. Bronzed gold streaks decorated a various section of locks, set at a side parting and allowed it all to flow over her neck and over her left shoulder. A black bag sat at her feet, the zips pulled open slightly to reveal a book or two and several ring bound notebooks. On the desk in front of her was a light purple pencil case, a pair of blue framed glasses resting lightly upon it as a few other pens had fallen from one of the sections.

Reaching forward, Lloyd pulled the pen from her hands as he stopped beside her, but she seemed to pay no attention to him as she picked up one of the other pens and continued in red instead. With a sigh and a light smile, he went to her ear instead, pulling out a small earphone. Bright emerald eyes turned up to the teen in red, and her face lit up instantly as she smiled.

"Good morning Lloyd! I thought you weren't here today!" she said, and he handed her pen back to her.

"I was just late again," he replied, dropping his bag next to one of the other red fabric chairs before sitting down. "By the way, this is Kadaj, the new guy Dr Davies mentioned to us," he told her, gesturing half heartedly to him.

As if only having noticed him, the girl seemed to jump slightly when she looked at him instead.

"Oh, hello!" she said, holding up a hand to shake as she smiled cheerfully. He took it slowly, a little confused by her attitude towards him.

"Uh..."

"My name's Claudia. It's nice to meet you!"

"Yeah..."

"Stop scaring him Claudia, he's not used to you yet." She stuck her tongue out at Lloyd, taking back her hand and picking up her pen again.

"Shut up. I'm surprised you didn't scare him away before I did."

"It's because I'm too tired at the moment to do anything," he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Up doing your Black Magic coursework again?" she asked, bringing the pen tip to the paper again before looking back up at Kadaj. "You can sit down if you want," she told him, moving her pencil case a little more towards herself and gesturing to another of the chairs around the circular table.

Letting his bag drop beside the third cushioned chair, Kadaj sat and brought his feet up as he crossed his legs.

"I forgot about it until Morgan reminded me at ten. I was up until three finishing it off."

"Mum wouldn't let me out until I finished it."

"Lucky you. I had to go over to the farm, again, to check up on Flare. I swear that bird is more trouble that it's worth."

"By the time Morgan is able to go by himself, you won't have any homework to worry about," the brunette sniggered, making her friend groan in agitation.

Listening to their conversation, Kadaj's curiosity got the better of him.

"What farm?" he asked, but Lloyd merely mumbled a reply that was barely understandable. He looked back at Claudia when she laughed lightly.

"The chocobo farm, near Kalm. Lloyd's family owns some of the stables, so he and his younger brother have a chocobo each. I heard some famous dude owns the rest of them, but he lets the farm use them however they want," she explained to him, and he nodded with interest. The young girl at the bar, Marlane or something like that, had been drawing a picture of one of the large yellow birds, though it was unbelievably malformed compared to most creatures. Denzel said something about the stables as well, but he hadn't been paying attention at the time and therefore couldn't remember any more.

"Hey Kadaj, what lessons are you taking?" Brought back effectively from his musings by the chirpy voice of the brunette, he had to think for a moment before realising what she had asked. Reaching down to his bag, he undid the zips and pulled out the pale green ring binder before handing it to her. She turned it over to look at the back, before pulling out the folded paper tucked inside the transparent cover and unfolded it.

"Black Magic, Ancient Stones, Weapon study and P.E? I take it you like all the hands-on stuff," she said, before smiling. "You have a free lesson before lunch! You can come to lunch with us if you want," she offered, and he nodded unsurely.

"Uh, okay."

"Great, just come up here at the beginning of third lesson. We'll wait for you," she said brightly.

There was a light knock at the door before it was pulled open, and when Kadaj turned his head he was a little confused to see Denzel walk in. The young teenager looked around the room once before spotting him, and walked over to him whilst pulling something from his pocket.

"What are you doing up here?" he asked, before Denzel held out some money for him.

"Tifa called and said you forgot your lunch money, so I have to give you some of mine," he replied, giving a small wave of greeting to the other two at the table, who waved back.

"Hi Denzel," said Lloyd, before the young male turned and left once again.

"How do you know Denzel?" Kadaj asked curiously.

"My brother's friend. They're in the same class," Lloyd replied, crossing his arms over his stomach tiredly. With an interested gaze, Claudia looked at Kadaj.

"How do you know him? Do you live at the Seventh Heaven as well?" she asked him, and he nodded with a sigh.

"Unfortunately."

"What's wrong with the place?"

"Denzel keeps up this unearthly snoring that sounds terrible even through the wall. I haven't had a decent night's sleep for days..." he sighed tiredly, running his fingers through his hair as he closed his eyes.

"Hey, maybe you can come to my house Friday night with the others. We could get to know you better, and I can see how good you are on the Gamecube! Don't worry, Lloyd, Dizzy, Simon and Sophie will all be there too," she offered suddenly, taking him by surprise. He looked at her blankly for a second, before nodding slowly as he came to his senses.

"Uh... sure, I guess."

"Great, just remember to ask if you can stay the night too, and remember to bring some money so we can go out for lunch."

Lloyd laughed lightly, and she shot him a smirk.

"That's directed at you too, Lloyd, for the eight thousandth time."

"For the millionth time, stop exaggerating!" he replied with a humoured smile.

"But isn't that exaggeration as well?" Kadaj asked, bringing the scarlet eyes to him.

"That's the point. It's a joke."

"Oh." The urge to glare was there, but somehow he didn't want to show his aggravation at being corrected. There was something about this pair that amused him, the way they spent their time trying to get the last word, the way they argued and discussed. It was almost childish, but at least it made him smile, even only a little.

R&R


	5. Floor

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

5. Floor

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Claudia sighed before beginning to pack her things back into her bag.

"I need to go and talk to Mr Smith before next lesson."

"Why didn't you go during first period?" Lloyd asked, standing up from his chair and stretching.

"Because he wasn't in his room. The class said he would be back by break, so I'm going to go and see him," she explained, and he nodded as he picked up his bag again.

"We'll walk with you. We might find Dizzy and Si on the way," said the black haired teen, before looking down at Kadaj. "Come on, your next lesson is with me anyway." With a nod, Kadaj stood up from his seat and picked up his bag, before the three of them left the room.

The sun was still glistening down brightly from above as they stepped outside, and after closing the door Kadaj followed the two companions up the gradual ramp between the steps and the ledge of grass. Already, the small green blanket was dotted with pupils in black jumpers, dark bottle green ties, and white shirts over school trousers, conversing happily about anything that had previously occurred during the week or their first lesson. On the wide path beyond the hedge walked the younger generation of the school, the girls in white blouses whilst the boys were in grey shirts, each one wearing a green and silver tie around their neck whether they were wearing the bottle green, v-necked jumpers or not. Many were sat against the wall in groups, though most were in white whilst the boys walked around in large groups. If any were walking alone they were ignored and shunned, the occasional voice yelling a demeaning name or comment before laughter followed.

Walking up to the top door of the corridor, the cooling shade was welcomed as they stepped inside. The heat was beginning to make his head hurt, so the darkness was welcomed by Kadaj as he followed Lloyd and Claudia down the corridor before them. Only one of two pupils were still lingering, some alone, some in pairs, yet soon enough they were the only occupants of the dark hall. Stepping down three steps before jumping the last two, Claudia hummed quietly as she bounced down the corridor, Lloyd walking a little more heavily behind her as he pushed his hands back into his jacket pockets.

Stepping in front of a door plastered with posters, she brought her hand to the door handle before pushing it open.

"Hello?" she called, stepping inside. The doors at the lower end of the corridor opened, and Lloyd waved at the two familiar figures as they walked up the hall towards them.

"Hey-"

"Damn it!" He and Kadaj both looked back at the brunette in the doorway as she cursed loudly, before stepping out and slamming the door shut.

"Not there?" Lloyd dared to ask, watching her glare at the ground.

"Stupid teacher..."

"What did you want to talk to him about?"

"Coursework."

"Bo-ring!" Lloyd faked a yawn, resulting in a slap on the arm from Claudia.

"Shut up!"

"Hey guys, no Julie today then?" After the trek up the relatively long corridor, Daisy and Simon finally arrived at their friends. Kadaj remained silent, finding it easier to observe their activities before taking any part, and watched as Claudia grumbled incoherently under her breath.

"She's just annoyed that Smith isn't here," Lloyd replied in her place, and she crossed her arms in childish anger as she pouted. Both new arrivals smiled.

"Don't worry, we can come and find him later, before lunch or something," Daisy reassured her, and the blond streaked brunette sighed.

"Yeah, okay..."

Lloyd looked at Simon, a suspicious look on his features as he smiled slyly.

"What have you got next Simon?" he asked, and the silver and black haired teen paused to think for a moment.

"Err... English? No, wait, I have a free lesson!" he chirruped happily, before Daisy poked his shoulder.

"No, we're going over history. You missed most of the lesson sleeping," she said with a scowl, and he pouted.

"Damn! Every single time!

"Sucker," Lloyd smirked, receiving the once fingered salute from Simon.

"Why are you always out to torture us?" Daisy asked, and he smiled smugly.

"Because I love to see you squirm."

"When will our new friend be receiving this special treatment?" Claudia added curiously.

"When I know more about him, and he knows how to defend himself." Upon hearing this, and connecting it with what he had previously heard, Kadaj had a sudden fear of Lloyd. Suppressing the shiver that came with the cold dread running down his spine, he forced a nervous smile. Just as long as he tried to avoid telling him too much, he should be fine...

Every member of the small group flinched as the school bell unknowingly above them started ringing shrilly, before Claudia sighed once it stopped.

"We'll be up in the common room if you need us," she said stepping towards Simon and Daisy as they turned back down the corridor, leaving Kadaj alone with Lloyd.

"See y'all later," replied the black haired teen, before turning in the opposite direction. Confused, Kadaj remained where he was, looking from Lloyd to the three that were already gone, then back at Lloyd, who had turned to look back at him. "Come on, we have Weapon study next," he told him. Urging his feet to move he started after him, footsteps heavy with the realisation that this gave Lloyd the perfect opportunity to learn more about him. Watching the floor, he walked a step behind Lloyd in silence.

"I wasn't being serious just then." He looked up at Lloyd.

"What?"

"I was kidding. I only do that to them because I've known them for years and they have the nerve to do it back. I'll give you the chance to get to know us all first," he added at the end, glancing back at him with a sly smile. Feeling strangely relieved, he nodded once to show he understood. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad being in a lesson with Lloyd.

Beside the orange and yellow brick building of the common room that they had previously been sat inside, the yellow wall that formed the back of the grassy ledge was the gymnasium. It was a large building, windows along the top of the wall letting in a vast amount of sunlight since the sun was still shining down from the eastern sky. Walking towards the left entrance, Lloyd sighed.

"I hope we get to do something interesting today. All it's been lately is writing, writing, writing..." Kadaj gulped. The last thing he wanted was to hold The Pen.

"What else do you normally do in this lesson?" he asked to change the writing topic.

"Basic training, but we're getting to the more advanced stuff now days."

"As in... fencing?"

"To an extent, yes. Did you do much in your old school?" He tried to remember what Cloud had told him about that point... But... nothing came to mind. Thinking hard, he tried to think of a different reply.

"Uh, y-yeah, a little... I guess."

It was a half truth. During the first few days of his existence had had taught himself the basics, using what little scraps of his previous existence to better himself until he could fight without the slightest slip up. It hadn't taken long, and it was how he and his brothers had first received their bikes, though his was now abandoned somewhere in the ruins of Midgar. He would go and find it, but Cloud had barely let him leave the bar without company. Cursing his 'Big Brother', he almost tripped on a wide mat just inside the door.

"Oh yeah, look out for the carpet," Lloyd warned as he looked back around the corner. Straightening himself out again, he mumbled profanities as he followed Lloyd.

The changing rooms were large and relatively empty, lined with benches around the walls with a small shower section, and a few bags gathered on the floor beside the door. Placing his bag with Lloyd's, he then followed him back out into the hall and through another set of double doors to the large gym itself. Climbing bars clung to walls like ivy, reaching up to the sunlight blaring in through the windows. The ropes hung like vines from the ceiling, whilst various pieces of equipment were placed at random across the floor like dozing animals. Congregated in the centre was a group of half a dozen students, and standing amongst them was a tall blond haired man dressed in dark clothes. Cerulean blue turned to them as they entered, before he brushed a lock of gold from his face as he smiled at them.

"So you're Kadaj! I was beginning to wonder where you were, but now I see why you were late," he said, before turning to the teen in the red coat. "Hello Lloyd." The teen grinned back.

"Hello sir!"

"Get rid of the coat for now, it's not school uniform." With a sigh, Lloyd undid the zip.

"Yes sir."

Turning back to Kadaj, he smiled again.

"Right, I'm Mr Tribal. All I need to know for now is what you already know, and if there's anything you need help on," he said, pulling the small tie that held back most of his hair a little tighter.

"Err..."

"He can look over my work during lunch sir," said Lloyd, walking back in without his coat, revealing his white tailored shirt and bottle green tie of the school uniform. Mr Tribal nodded before looking back at the rest of the class.

"All right then, we can practice a little this lesson. Mikey, go and get the blades." With a nod, the teen went to another set of double doors near the back of the hall. The teacher looked back at Kadaj. "Now you can show us what you know instead."

There was a trundle of small wheels, before a small cart was pulled out into the gym, the glint of metal instantly catching Kadaj's eye and brought his attention straight to it. A variety of different blades were resting against the wood, polished metal hilts and simple scabbards that would be expected in school care. But they were blades none the less. Walking over to them, Mr Tribal wrapped his hand around the handle of the closest weapon.

"Today we can practice so our newest addition to the class can get an idea of what we do here, but next lesson we'll go right back to the writing." A groan ran through them all, making the blond man smile. "A little more enthusiasm please! Now, pick your blade."

Everyone seemed to move before Kadaj had the chance to register what the teacher had just said. By the time he had arrived at the cart, all but two of the eight blades were gone: a short sword and a... he smirked, bringing his fingertips to the diamond wrapped handle before picking it up by the scabbard. Mr Tribal, still stood beside the cart, looked at him curious.

"You feel confident with that one?" he asked, watching him tie the scabbard to one of his belt loops.

"Why do you think I picked it?" he replied, turning back to the class. The teacher did the same, and looked at them all.

"Right, split up into pairs and one group of three, obviously. Just practice simple things and please, for the love of Ifrit, don't injure anyone." In an explosion of conversation, the group split up into four small pairs, though there was one group of three as the teacher had said. Relieved that Lloyd had come to him instead of leaving him with a stranger, Kadaj eyed the broadsword attached to his belt.

"I'll go easy on you," he said, leaving Kadaj to smirk. This was the perfect opportunity to test Lloyd's strength in a 'friendly' duel. If anything, he was the one who would have to hold back.

The ringing of metal was like music to his ears as he drew the katana, and even though it felt a little clumsier than his own he found he would still be able to use it with relative ease. With a curious gaze, Lloyd watched as he held it at his side, the point barely brushing the floor as he unsheathed the broadsword with the same long ring in a different key. Holding the handle with both hands, he held it up.

"Ready?" Kadaj nodded, prepared to use some of the simpler techniques that he knew.

It was refreshing to know that he could fight without the distraction of having to be stopped because it was 'wrong', that there was 'no need for it'. The metal struck hard, the low clang resonating like the others around the hall, but after one or two more steps he felt things beginning to drag. Moving slightly to the right, he brought the blade around for a different swipe, and stopped it merely a centimetre from Lloyd's neck, making him jump.

"Care to take it to the next level?" he asked with an almost sinister smirk. Staring blankly at him for a moment, Lloyd soon returned it as he pushed the katana away lightly with the broadsword.

"Gladly." In a sudden, unpredicted move, Lloyd knocked the top away before swinging the broadsword in one swift motion, forcing Kadaj away. Hopping back, he easily stopped the onslaught, leaving Lloyd with a stunned expression before he spun around and ran the katana's tip dangerously close to his stomach. The black haired teen stumbled back slightly, looking up in time to see the blade coming towards himself again.

Kadaj was amused to see Lloyd able to block the next attack and began to pick up his pace a little more, seeing how long it would take before his opponent would slip up. He could see he was beginning to tire a little, and prepared to end it soon. There was a flash of scarlet as Lloyd looked at him, eye to eye for a brief moment, before he avoided his attack and swung the broadsword around forcefully. With no other choice, he flipped back onto his free hand to avoid the hit, and pushed off the ground to land a safe distance away from the blade in question. He could see Lloyd breathing heavily already, and assumed that the class wasn't as used to fighting as he was. But that didn't stop him as he picked up the blade once again and charged towards him, engaging him once again in the fight. Now he was a little confused: somehow, he found himself defending more often, and defence was not his strongest point.

Locking blades once again, he found a way to get back on the offensive. Pushing the tip of the broadsword to the ground he began to fight back once again, barely giving Lloyd a chance to defend as he began to force him back to where the duel had started. Finding that he had already won, he attempted one final slash, causing Lloyd to stumble back once more before falling to the floor. There was a collective gasp before a round of applause, and Kadaj turned to find the rest of the group gathered around them and clapping.

Stepping forward, Mr Tribal stood between the two of them, looking from Lloyd to Kadaj.

"That was very impressive! I must say Lloyd, I never knew you could fight like that!" said the blond. With a tired sigh, the black haired teen closed his eyes and fell back on the floor, raising his hand weakly for a thumbs up. The cerulean blues turned to Kadaj, and watched him slide the katana carefully back into its scabbard. "And I'm amazed by your fighting skills. Which school did you go to before you came?" he asked. Kadaj undid the knot which tied the sword to his belt in silence, before the bell made its way through the doors and to their ears. In a sudden change of attitude, the pupils began to speak amongst themselves as they returned the blades.

With the katana still in hand, Kadaj went to Lloyd and extended his other palm to help him up.

"Damn, if I knew I'd be fighting like that today, I would have had more sleep last night." Lloyd seethed, moving his wrists to try and lessen the pain he felt after several hard blows. Picking up his broadsword for him, Kadaj started for the cart as Lloyd followed, undoing the scabbard with weak fingers. "I'll probably fall asleep on the train to town," he added, stifling a yawn. Curious, Kadaj looked back at him before handing him the blade.

"Train?"

"To get to town. You know, the one you took to get here this morning," he replied, sliding the blade back inside before putting it back with the others. "Come on, they'll be hunting us soon if we don't meet them on time," gesturing towards the doors he headed towards them, Kadaj hot on his heels with the realisation that his stomach was beginning to make the most peculiar noises. Slinging his bag back onto his back, he took one final glance into the gym before they left.

R&R


	6. Crazy

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

6. Crazy

"Hi- whoa Lloyd, you look like you've been hit by a bus!" Walking from the gym, the three companions were already waiting in the looming sunlight for them. The black haired teen flinched slightly at the pitch Daisy's voice was at as she laughed, and looked at the remaining two.

"What have you been doing for the past hour? Feeding her sugar?"

"Unfortunately, as fun as it would have been to see her bouncing from the walls, there was no sugar in the common room. Judging from your question, I would assume that you hadn't noticed the 'Out of Order' sign on the vending machine either," explained Simon, before Daisy leapt on him with her arms around his neck.

"I love you Simon! You're my best friend!" she giggled shrilly. Her friends merely rolled their eyes as he tried to un-pry the clamps around his shoulders.

Pulling out her phone and glancing at the time, Claudia sighed as both Simon and Daisy landed on the floor with a loud thud.

"Come on, or we'll miss the train," she said, starting towards the building.

"It's not like anyone else is going out to town at the moment anyway…" Lloyd muttered, stepping over Daisy to follow, with Kadaj following swiftly as he saw the giggling girl getting to her feet again.

Unsure of where he was going, Kadaj continued to follow the two ahead of him, beginning to get used to the silent corridors after walking through them for the third time that day. Leading them to a series of hooks along metal poles, Claudia soon abandoned her bag on one of the empty pegs before looking back at her friends.

"Hurry up, I'm hungry! The sooner we get there, the sooner we can eat!" she exclaimed almost manically, rubbing her hands together in glee. Looking at the numbers, the turquoise eyes continued to count until a number seemed familiar to him.

"402… 403… 404… 40- 0h." Going back to 404, he pulled off his bag and hung it on the hook under the number, before opening the front pouch and pulling out his own phone. Checking the small screen at the front, he soon pushed it into his pocket.

"Move your ass, Daisy, or we'll leave you behind!" Claudia called up the corridor as Lloyd abandoned his bag on a hook opposite his own, before he heard the same voice as before.

"Coming!" came Daisy's sing-song reply, before she appeared around the corner with Simon in tow.

"Geez, we need to figure out a way to calm her down," said Lloyd, watching as she started bouncing up and down, her curls moving with her and falling over her shoulders.

"She'll be fine once we get on the train," replied the other brunette, catching Daisy' hand before dragging her, and the unfortunate Simon still in her grasp, down the hall.

Avoiding the eye of the witches lurking in the office as they all signed a form to leave for lunch, Kadaj scrawled his name in his illegible hand before handing the pen to Lloyd as he followed the others. There was a small lawn outside the main entrance, the school emblem marked by a border of white tulips and various blue violets displaying the basic shape of a falling meteor. A wide path lead around it on either side, large enough for a vehicle to pass by the main door and back through the gate in the bordering fence, before leading back out to the train platform. As if waiting for them, the magnet train was sat on the rails in silence, barely any passengers visible through the windows or on the platform itself.

With bouncy steps, Daisy was the first into the compartment, Simon nursing a sore arm after finally being released from her grip, leaving Claudia to giggle at her hyper friend as she followed her onto the train. Passing through the door, Kadaj looked around.

"What's wrong?" asked Lloyd, still standing on the platform as Kadaj blocked the doorway. He frowned.  
"It's different to the train from this morning."

"Obviously. Only the last two years in school get to go out at lunch time, and the few lucky enough to get permission, so they use a smaller train to save power," Simon explained to him, before Lloyd pushed him on properly.

"Come on, or lunch'll be over before we get there!"

The compartment was empty except for the five of them. Walking to a small intercom, Lloyd pressed a green button below the screen as he leant against the wall, bringing up the image of a middle aged man with thinning brown hair.

"Hey Jacob."  
"You again? How come you're always the one pressing the button?"  
"Thanks for that Jacob. It's just us for now," he replied with a sigh, and the man nodded before the screen returned to black. The door slid shut and there was a loud clunk from beneath the floor, before the train lurched forward and started slowly down the track. Sitting down as it gradually picked up speed, Kadaj watched the world go by, the grass thinning as they passed back into the wastelands around Edge.

Looking up at the ledges and gatherings of rock, he realised how monotonous the scenery was. With a sigh he leant against the pole at the end of the seat.

"Where should we go for lunch?" Daisy asked, still unbelievably active as she hopped from one foot to another.

"We could go to the Shopping district. My sister mentioned a new café- oh! And some kind of display! I don't remember the details, but she said it was really pretty!" Claudia exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands together in glee.

"Sounds like a plan," replied Lloyd, pushing his hands into the silk lined pockets of his coat before glancing at Kadaj.

"Are you okay?" At the sound of a voice speaking to him, Kadaj looked from the window to Simon, who was leaning on the pole whilst standing beside his chair. He didn't reply, turning back to look through the window in a museful fashion. The wastelands reminded him of the encounter from the previous week, and of the company he had at that time… and his bike. But he missed his brothers more, since they knew him better than anyone else, and he knew them like the back of his hand. Somehow though, like a feeling in the back of his mind, he knew they were alive, or at least one of them. If he had his bike he would go and find them, but the only problems were that Cloud wouldn't let him get it, and if he went by himself he had no easy way of getting out of the slums. It was complicated, but… maybe if he got into Cloud's good books…

Soon enough the train was slowing down, passing through the Business district of Edge towards the station he had briefly stepped on that morning. It was bare, and even he could hear the echo of the wheels on the tracks as the train pulled to a halt. The doors slid open, and Daisy hopped onto the platform before Kadaj had even stood up.

"I can hear an echo!" she laughed, before attempting a cartwheel that ended as a round-off.

"Maybe if we threw her in the fountain, she'd calm down…" Claudia thought out loud, stepping off the train with Simon behind her. Before he could defend himself, he was once again caught by Daisy as she linked her arm through his.

"Whoa!" Reaching out, he caught Claudia's arm, who then caught Lloyd's hand in surprise and in an attempt to save herself just as he stepped off the train.

"Hey! Hold on a sec!" he called, looking back at Kadaj before grabbing his arm. "If you don't keep up, you'll get left behind!" Stumbling slightly after being pulled onto the platform, Kadaj had the sudden urge to pull free and run back to… well, it was a choice between the train and the Seventh Heaven. But if he had no one who knew him in school he doubted he would survive for long.

"No! How could they do this to me?" After catching up to Daisy and walking along in a relatively straight line, linked by the arms, they stopped suddenly when she made her exclamation. Looking up at the doors of the overly large shopping centre, a large sign with bold, bragging letters of black hung to display its message to eager shoppers.

"'Closed for repairs and renovation'? You think they would have put up more signs or something," said Simon and Lloyd smirked, arms still linked with Claudia and Kadaj.

"They did. They're all over town. It's closed until Saturday."  
"No!" Daisy groaned, and Simon sighed once more as he nudged her lightly.

"Come on, we can go somewhere else for lunch. There's more than one café in this city… I think." He looked at Lloyd and Claudia instead. Lloyd began to shake his head with a look of dismay, but Claudia elbowed him into Kadaj before nodding at her friends.  
"Of course, there are loads of places. Heck, I think the Seventh Heaven sells food too, during the day at least. Come on, before you fade away and lunch is over at school," said the brunette, tugging her companions away from the sealed door. Hopping against hope, Kadaj swore he would kill someone if they went to the Seventh Heaven. He doubted Cloud would be there, but he didn't personally feel like speaking with Tifa anytime soon.

"Hey, I've never seen this place before…" Looking up at the withered old sign above a large front window, Daisy' face was blank. Claudia sighed.

"You pass it every time you come and visit us!" she exclaimed, before hitting her black haired companion up-side the head.

"Ow! What did you hit me for?" he whined, rubbing his sore skull.

"Sorry, force of habit." As he growled at her, Daisy pushed the door open and walked inside.

"Come on, this place looks cool!" she chirruped, Simon following close behind her as he looked back at them with a smile.

"We may as well!"

It was softly lit inside, a sweet scent hinted by the faint bitter smell of coffee hanging in the air as a staff of three smiled at them from behind the clear glass counter. Circular glass tables surrounded by four or five black and silver chairs each, the small café had recently been re-furnished as everything glistened slightly, looking new even under the glow of a few bulbs. A step led up to a section at the back, with more tables and a jukebox visible in the corner that played music quietly from a surround sound system in the walls. A large black board behind the waitresses displayed what was available, and on the opposite wall many certificates for different awards boasted the café's legacy.

Bouncing cheerfully up to the counter, Daisy looked at the food on display in wonder.

"It looks so nice… Can I have a hot chocolate and a… ooh, chocolate cake!"

"Just pick something Daisy!" Lloyd said impatiently, obviously still smarting from the slap to his head as Claudia sniggered. Looking through the glass, Kadaj pulled out the money he had to see if he had enough for anything available, and sighed in relief when he found he could at least get something decent. As he looked up at the black board, he hadn't realised that Daisy had bought something and gone to a table until Claudia pushed him forward gently as the queue moved. Once Simon had his own food, he stepped up to the till.

"Uh…" The woman in the black t-shirt watched him in silence, before Lloyd sighed in agitation. "Coffee and cake please."

"Which cake – coffee, lemon, or chocolate?"

"Chocolate."  
"Aren't you having anything else?" Claudia asked, but he shook his head as it was prepared for him.

"I don't have the stomach for anything else."

"Why? Are you ill?" He shook his head as he watched the drink being poured.

"No, it just reminds me of my brothers," he replied quietly, handing over the correct amount of money to the waitress.

"Oh… What happened to them?" Taking his food, he turned and headed to the table Simon and Daisy occupied near the back. Looking back at Lloyd with curious green-blue eyes, he merely shrugged at her before nudging her towards the till.

Already biting into her sandwich, Daisy poked Simon as she swallowed, looking at what he had.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked, but he merely shook his head and went back to his green tea. Figuring it was safer to sit beside Simon, Kadaj placed his things on the table before pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down. It felt good to rest his feet after rushing around all day, even if he had five minutes of rest on the train merely moments ago. Lloyd and Claudia were soon amongst them, Claudia beside Daisy to attempt to keep her calm with the cake and hot chocolate.

"Why are we letting her eat all this sugar?" she asked exasperatedly, watching Daisy take another bite from her sandwich.

"Where's Sophie today anyway? It's really quiet without her," said Lloyd, pulling the metal spoon from his own hot chocolate, a mountain of white cream visible on top as the silverware went in his mouth. But it was soon pulled out again with a swift hand. "Ow!"

"Hot?" Claudia cooed, and he nodded as he pouted. "Well it serves you right! Moron," her tone changed quickly, and he watched her through narrowed eyes as he ran his finger lightly through the surface of the whipped cream.

"You're evil…"

Kadaj was confused by Lloyd's choice of beverage, the fluffy whipped cream missing from both girls' drinks. Dipping his spoon in again, Lloyd grinned like a child with his favourite toy as he scooped up some cream and something else underneath.

"Marshmallows!"  
"What have we got next?" Daisy managed to ask after swallowing.

"We have Art. The three of you have Ancient Stones," said Claudia, making her friend sigh.

"Bother, I was kind of hoping I'd have something interesting."  
"Aren't I interesting enough for you anymore?" Simon asked with a childish frown, before gesturing to Kadaj. "Besides, we have a new person to introduce to the lesson." Daisy suddenly smiled in a sinister fashion, bringing her fingertips together as she watched him.  
"Ah yes!"

There was a hand across his chest, and Kadaj looked at Lloyd as he shook his other finger in a scolding fashion.

"Hold on there! Kadaj is new here, so give him a chance. Besides, he's pretty good at duelling."  
"'Pretty good'? That's pretty evasive Lloyd, you normally call everyone in your class a 'bunch of newbs'," said Claudia, before Lloyd smirked.

"I bet he floored him." The hand on his chest suddenly curled into a fist, before coming to the table as scarlet eyes flashed dangerously.

"Hey, I never said that!"  
"Calm down Lloyd, you know he's just winding you up," his dark haired friend consoled him, her hand on his arm as she looked at his face. He bared his teeth, but merely huffed as he leant back in his chair, closing his eyes as he smirked.

"You're just jealous." Simon sighed at his reply, rolling his eyes as he smiled.

"Yes, we all know that. We're all so jealous." Though it was obviously sarcasm, it seemed to please Lloyd as he reached forward and picked up his sandwich.

Once it seemed that the storm had passed, Simon turned his attention to Kadaj.

"He gets a little touchy about his fighting skills. It's best to avoid the subject if you don't like an ego the size of Cosmo Canyon," he mumbled to him.

"I heard that!"  
"You were supposed to."  
"Oh."

Picking up his fork, Kadaj cut off a small section of his cake before bringing it to his mouth. As he listened to them converse, the speakers fell silent as the next track came on. Daisy groaned and placed her sandwich back on her plate, pulling out her purse and looking through what money she had.

"I hate this song!" she seethed, standing up and heading to the jukebox.

"What is it?" Kadaj asked, and the three remaining around the table stared at him. "What?"

"Err… it's called 'Crazy'," said Simon, looking at the other two incredulously.

"It was popular years ago, kind of old by now and incredibly annoying," Claudia explained as she picked up her cup and blew the surface/

"How can you not know it? I barely listened to the radio ten years ago and I still knew it! It made my ears bleed though," Lloyd shrugged at the end of his sentence, leaning back casually in his chair once again.

"I'm not that interested in music."  
"Really?" Claudia didn't seem to believe him, and he was clueless as to why until he remembered what she had been listening to that morning.

"Is it a problem?"

"No, I guess not…"  
"Yay! Famous Last Words!"

Daisy soon returned to them with a large smile on her face, falling into her seat with a satisfied sigh before picking up the remains of her sandwich.

"No prizes for guessing what she's put on," Lloyd joked, and her grin grew wider.

"I love them to pieces!"  
"We already know!"  
"Who?"  
"'My Love Affair.' They're really famous by now, but there's still those small groups that don't like them," explained Simon, and as the song changed again Daisy clapped in glee.

"Yay! I feel like sing—" Before she could finish her sentence, both Simon and Claudia had lunged on her and brought their hands over her mouth, almost knocking all three to the floor as they had jumped from their seats.

"No! No singing!" Simon pleaded over-dramatically, making her glare at him darkly as he began to smile cheekily. "No offence either."  
Listening as a male voice began to sing over a rhythmic base line, Kadaj paid no heed to it until more guitars started roaring from the speakers in one strong harmony, grabbing his attention and holding it in place with large, gnarled claws. The lyrics, at first, seemed depressing and morbid against the instruments until he actually listened. They were far more hopeful than they let on, and he found it all oddly appealing as he continued to take in the raging guitars and crashing drums. Across the table, Daisy was seemingly playing an invisible instrument in her hands as both she and Claudia sang along with the dramatic voice surrounding them, both bouncing in their seats much to the amusement of the two males. Eventually Lloyd joined in as well, singing the main melody as both girls sung the harmony, before it fell silent and it was merely the lead singer, the base, and Lloyd. The drums came back before all the instruments returned in an explosion of sound, making all three as loud as before, much to the minor displeasure of a customer at the table near the front window.

When the song ended, all three dissolved into peels of laughter, before both girls gave Lloyd a high five.

"That was classic!" Daisy laughed.

"You're all nuts," was all Simon said, sighing into his cup.

"Are we all done?" After their small performance, it didn't take long before they had all finished their lunch and Simon had asked them all the question as he stood up.

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" Daisy was eyeing him suspiciously as he shook his head, but said no more as she stood up with her own dishes and followed him back to the counter.

"Wow, lunch went fast. We have fifteen minutes to get back to school," said Claudia, pushing her phone back into her pocket.

"Don't you mean back to the train?" Lloyd asked apprehensively, but she shook her head with a light smile as she pointed to a clock on the wall.

"Nope, it's ten past."  
"Damn! Sir's going to kill me!" he exclaimed in panic, before rushing through the door without them.

"What has he done now?" Claudia asked, almost as if it were a common routine.

"If he was late to afternoon registration again, Dr. Davies was going to bar him from going to town at lunch for a week," Simon informed her, and she sighed before jogging after him.

"You stupid moron!" she yelled after him, soon disappearing from their sight as she went around a corner.

"Those two are like children!" said the amber eyed teen, a humoured smile decorating his face before Daisy took his and Kadaj's arms and began to pull them along the path.

"Hurry up, or they'll go back on the train without us!"

Finally seeing the reason why Simon never pulled free when caught by Daisy, Kadaj was surprised by her impressively tight grip as she tugged them back towards the train station. Hopefully he wouldn't bruise.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Simon's first question when they arrived at the train was an odd one, but as he stepped on behind him he could tell why he had when he saw Lloyd sprawled on the ground.

"Running…" he panted, before gesturing to the brunette on one of the seats. "And that lump took up the nearest chair!" A foot was in his side in the blink of an eye, making him groan as he rolled onto his other side in pain.

"Don't call me a lump!" Claudia whined, before Simon stepped over his friend on the floor to sit opposite her.

"Isn't that a little unfair? He's on the floor," Kadaj pointed out as the doors slid shut behind him, but Claudia merely shrugged.

"He should know the punishment by now," she said, before reaching forward and taking Lloyd's hand. "Come on, sweet pea. Up you get."  
"You're so mean!" he complained, his grip on her hand tightening as she began to let him go. "Whoa! Okay, I take it back!"

"Good boy!"

Once again, the train lurched forward after the loud clunk, and they were soon speeding back towards the school grounds as Lloyd attempted to recover on the seat beside Claudia. Daisy seemed to have calmed down compared to how she had been when they had first left, and was now speaking animatedly to Kadaj about their Ancient Stones and Creatures class. He was apparently lucky for arriving early on in the year, since the work they would be given was said to be difficult and, according to Claudia's older sister, plentiful. As he attempted to listen to Daisy, he contemplated the idea of leaving and never coming back once he arrived back at the bar, and it was incredibly tempting as he cringed at the thought of another year and a half of school.

"I'm here sir!" Lloyd breathed as he almost fell into the Physics lab, and the teacher sighed as he looked at him from behind his desk before marking the register.

"You were lucky this time Lloyd. Now you can take the register to the office," he replied, folding the green file shut before holding it out to the teen as his friends chuckled.

"Damn it!" Lloyd cursed as he pulled his bag onto his shoulder.

"Don't use such language," came the bored voice of the teacher, bringing Lloyd's dark glare upon him. But he merely shooed him away. When Daisy and Simon began to follow their dark haired companion Kadaj did the same, knowing better than to be left behind when a wrath like theirs was around.

R&R


	7. True

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

7. True

"…It's like… she's always there, at the back of my mind. She's watching everything that I do… and constantly judging me. It's so hard to deal with." Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, he let the sun play with his locks of molten silver as he closed his eyes in silent admiration. They were sat outside a building in a small town near their destination, taking up a table with nothing but salt, vinegar and a small container of sugar cubes visible on top, the third now in his hands. They made him curious to know how they were made as he picked one out, but he sighed as he looked at the person sat across from him. Bringing his feet up and placing them on a spare chair beside him, he gave the man a sarcastic look.

"Then learn to deal with it, Yazoo. Loz and I have, so it can't be that difficult," he sneered, holding the cube level with his eye.

"Thank you so much for your help brothers," came his annoyed reply, bringing his elbow to the table and resting his head upon his hand, long hair brushing the surface of the wood as he gazed out across the town.

Soon enough, one of the white lumps narrowly missed his head as he moved, bringing the vivid green gaze back to the youngest amongst them, who was smirking as he held another lump in his fingers already.

"Elbows off the table, dear brother. It's bad manners."  
"Then feet off the chair Kadaj. That's just rude."

"Stop it you two. Once we eat and get back on the bikes you don't have to talk to each other for an hour at least." Both looked at the third by the table, leaning back in his own chair in a relaxed way as he watched them.

"What makes you think I don't want to talk to Yazoo?" asked Kadaj, but the eldest merely shrugged.

"I don't know. I just want the two of you to shut up." Another ump was thrown, and his him on the head. "Hey!"  
"Then learn to keep your mouth shut, Loz."  
Picking up another, he placed it in his mouth instead, watching his brothers as they conversed. Sugar lumps tasted weird, but there was something about it that he liked.

"Do you really think this'll happen once we find her?" asked Yazoo, but before Loz could answer Kadaj cut across him.

"Of course. Our whole coming here would have been for nothing otherwise," he said sharply, disgusted that his brother had dared to think of such a question.

"But what if it wasn't her? It could have been anyone—"

"If that were the truth we wouldn't even be here. It had to be her. No one else would know such details." He could tell that his interruptions were beginning to grate on his brother's nerves, and smirked once again as he continued to suck on his sugar cube. It was disappearing fast, and he'd soon need another one.

"But I see what Yazoo means. Just because we can remember these things doesn't mean that this voice we heard was Mother. Out memories may have been altered or… fuzzed up," said Loz, unable to find a better phrase. Kadaj sighed irritably.

But he was beginning to have his doubts. Something could have happened to their memories, and the voice they heard may only be trying to deceive them. And how could they know they'd heard the same voice? He hadn't seen anything, only a pale green light. With no image to relate to, there was no way to verify with Loz and Yazoo that it had been the same one speaking. He sighed for being se weak willed and feeble minded, doubting what he had been told by the acidic and snide, but strangely reassuring voice. She had given herself a name, a title that they were to call her by.

… Mother…

Bringing another cube to his mouth, he looked across the town as the conversation to his left became a wall of voice. Young children walked hand in hand with women of all age and visage, but the name was the same, and they all seemed proud of their children. It was strange, but the longer he watched the more he became curious about the desire to please, until he assumed that it would be best to do whatever he could to make her happy. Just to make her proud, and to feel the same as the children around him. When he realised how lost in thought he had become, he sneered and looked away, placing the container back on the table as he turned to the place that had been put in front of him. With his feet back on the floor, he curled one around the leg of his chair as he picked up his fork, and started playing with his food. All of a sudden, he didn't feel hungry…

"Wow, you know a lot Kadaj," Daisy was surprised as Kadaj wrote another sentence in his new, dark green book , his name, class, subject and teacher on the front whilst he had already scribbled two pages inside. Though he assumed it was because his handwriting hadn't improved since that morning, he had to admit he had written much more than both Simon and Daisy put together. He smiled lightly as he turned back to his book and continued writing, his thoughts too preoccupied by his previous memory to concentrate on Daisy and Simon. His work helped him think, since he knew all that was being taught to him and he could answer questions without trouble, leaving more time for more important matters. Tapping the tip of his pen to the paper once again he sighed, suddenly unable to think of answers as he leant his head against his hand instead. Distractions really threw him off.

"Kadaj, concentrate! You've spent the last five minutes staring into space!" Turning his attention to the teacher in a bored fashion whilst the others of the class jumped in surprise at the sudden screech, Kadaj suppressed a sigh as the leery woman loomed.

"Carry on with your work. I want it finished—"

"I've already finished," he cut across, leaving her mouth agape as she seemed to slowly process what he had just said. Clearing her head with a light shake, she soon looked down at him again with bland brown eyes.

"What?" With his capped pen, he pushed his book towards her.

"I've already finished," he repeated in the same tone, though he was amused by the look of shock on Mrs. Stalinski's face as she picked up the book and glanced over his work. She obviously didn't find it as funny as he did, as she was soon looking down at him once again through narrowed eyes.

"Tidy up your handwriting. It looks like a four year old's."  
With an annoyed sigh he took his book back, glaring at the hag as she turned away once again. Daisy nudged his arm lightly.  
"Don't worry about her. She's like that with everyone," she reassured him, but it didn't stop the burning gaze of hatred he was still sending to her floral patterned shirt.

"What amazes me is that you answered all those questions without looking at the notes she gaze us last lesson. What exactly was the name of your old school again?" Simon asked curiously, a sly smile on his face as he looked Kadaj. The teen merely closed his book and began to run his pen across the cover, smirking secretively as a random shape took form in front of him.

"How was your first lesson in Snoresville?" Lloyd and Claudia soon rejoined with them on the train platform, waving their farewell to Daisy and Simon as they boarded the smaller train to Kalm instead. Stepping into the compartment, Kadaj sighed.

"It was too easy."  
"'Too easy'? Are you even in the same class as them?" Claudia asked, and he looked back at them.

"That wasn't the impression that I got."

"Why? What did you do?" asked Lloyd, leaning forward with interest.

"I don't know. She just seemed shocked that I'd finished before commenting on my handwriting."  
Glancing at Lloyd, Claudia eyed Kadaj thoughtfully as she brought a finger to her chin.

"Maybe you'd be better in Art…" she mumbled in a museful fashion, before Lloyd sat back in his seat in a similar way.

"What makes you think that?" he asked her in the same tone.

"Kadaj, may I see your Ancient Stones book, please?" asked the brunette, holding out a hand. He looked at it for a second in silence, before unzipping his bag and pulling out the forest green book, feeling strangely awkward. For some strange reason, he didn't want them making fun of his handwriting, though it would probably only make him bite back. Holding the book up for Lloyd to see the front, she gestured to the doodle covered cover.

"See, he's a lot like how you were when I met you," she said, before flicking it open to the first five, A4 pages. "Hm, his punctuation is better than yours though, but it still looks a lot like yours too," she pointed out. Lloyd huffed a sigh and stuck his tongue out her, before looking back at Kadaj.

"You should ask Daisy for help. She's good with handwriting, and a lot nicer than most teachers in school, though she may not seem it. She really helped me, I can tell you that for free," he said, blowing some of his hair from his face.

"Seriously, it looked like one long scribble along the line with very small gaps. At least yours is legible."  
"Gee, thanks! You're supposed to be my friend!"

"Truth or Dare! Truth or Dare!" Ignoring the chants of the recently released school rats from the Primary school a few blocks away, Kadaj walked in through the door of the Seventh Heaven at half past four. Marlene looked up from her book on the table once the door shut, before turning her head to the entrance to the kitchen.

"Tifa! Kadaj is back!" He shuddered as she called in her almost whinny tone of voice as he dropped his bag on a table, before yanking the knot of his tie loose and pulling it over his head. What he couldn't stand was the thought of wearing it—

"Where have you been? School ended an hour ago and it doesn't take three quarters of an hour to walk from the station." Walking from the back door and throwing a dish cloth onto the bar, Tifa's hands rested on her hips as she cocked her head to one side with a curious look.

"I was talking to some people I met at school. They live a few streets away," he replied lowly, feeling awkward at conversing such a subject with someone he barely knew. She nodded as she smiled lightly.

"It's good to see you're already getting along with some people. Did you have any trouble from anyone?" she asked, watching him pull his phone form his bag and check the screen at the front. He didn't reply as he flipped his phone open, pressing the 'select' button on his keypad to open his inbox.

Two text messages were waiting for him, both from unrecognised numbers, but he could already guess who they were from as he opened the first. 'Txt bak if its rite, loyd' was written, whilst the second one read 'haha, i no ur numba! roo'. Adding both numbers to his phone's memory, he decided to reply just to show they had the right number, even though they had both copied it straight from his screen merely moments ago. His only problem now was what to put down… Eventually he settled with an 'it's right' to both before putting his phone away, and brought his attention back to Tifa only to find she had already disappeared back into the kitchen. With nothing else to do down in the main bar, he picked up his bag and tie before heading up the stairs to his room.

There wasn't much to brag about: a bed, a desk, a small bedside table with a lamp, and a walk in wardrobe with a mirror on the door that he could do nothing about. He tried to think of some way of covering it as he dropped his bag by his bed, before collapsing onto the plain sheets with a sigh. Even though he'd finished the work in the Ancient stones lesson, Mrs Stalinski had piled on another few hours worth of 'homework' on them, something about researching the subjects she had given them before writing a four to five page essay. He'd glanced at the sheet earlier, but this 'homework' lark seemed to be more of a time waster than anything else. An hour of his life, at the least, that he wouldn't get back without some kind of fight.

In his pocket, his phone went off again and started vibrating against his leg, which annoyed him more since he was lying on it. Turning onto his back before pulling out the black device, he flipped it open to read the message the brunette had just sent him. 'When i find it, wud u like 2 borow my old mp3 playr 4 music n stuff?' What kind of question was that? And how was he supposed to reply? He didn't even know what an MP3 player was… There was another beep and a new message, and he had a little more of an idea of what she meant when he read it: 'with headfones, course'. But what would he do with it? There was only one song he knew, and even then he'd only heard it once. Sitting up, he began to press in a reply.

"I guess so… but… what… would… I listen… to?" he muttered as he wrote before sending the message back. Dropping the phone onto his blanket as he stood up, he started unbuttoning his shirt to change into something other than his school uniform, and looked around the room for what he had been given the day before. Tifa had mentioned something about going out to buy him some clothes of his own, but he didn't know when and was forced to take some of Cloud's instead. That was why everything was a little too big for him, since Denzel's wardrobe would be far too small since the kid himself was only twelve. He may have been older than Kadaj, but the runt certainly wasn't bigger.

Pulling on a black t-shirt, his phone was soon calling again and forced him back towards it, and he read the message with tired eyes. 'I'll think of summat. Rememba 2 ask bout stayin friday night, k? We'll b goin 2 d shoping district 2 2 c d renovations, so bring moniez!' Somehow, the mention of shopping made him groan, but going out would be better than going back to the bar afterwards. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Looking through the kitchen door at the sound of quiet humming, Kadaj found Tifa sitting by the table and glancing through the newspaper during her short break, and walked to one of the cupboards near the sink.

"Denzel told me you were with Morgan's older brother today. Are you two friends?" the woman asked casually, turning the page. Kadaj looked at her suspiciously as he slowly pulled a glass down, before nodding.

"If you mean Lloyd, then yes, I was hanging around with them today. Don't tell me there's a problem with that too," he said sharply, but Tifa smiled as she shook her head.

"Of course not. It's good that you have friends on your first day." Staring at her for a second, he turned away with the same suspicious look towards her as he twisted the tap.

"…One of them asked if I could spend the night on Friday." Maybe she was in some kind of trance that made her positive and agreeable…

"Sounds like fun! You should go." Looking back at her in shock, he couldn't believe his ears. There had to be a drawback.

Tifa lifted her head and smiled brightly at him, making him step back slightly.

"But you're going to have to ask Cloud." Damn, why did he have to think of drawbacks at a time like this? But he sighed in defeat all the same.

"When'll he be back?"

"Half an hour. He's in Kalm at the moment. But for now you'll be coming with me," she said, standing up and folding the paper for Tall, Blonde and Boring when he returned. Kadaj watched her alertly, suddenly very aware of his situation of being along and unarmed and surrounded by teenagers with Tifa as Captain. He was only half aware of the handles of the lower cupboards digging in to his leg as he watched her, before Marlene stepped into the kitchen.

"I thought you'd already gone," said the girl, but Tifa nodded in reply.

"We're leaving now, don't worry."  
"'We'? Going where?"

"Don't panic, I'm taking you out to buy some clothes that actually fit you. I can tell that you don't want to stay in Cloud's things forever, so let's go," she said brightly, picking up a small bag sitting on the kitchen counter.

"But—"

"It's either new clothes or you're going naked, your choice."  
"Don't be stupid…" he muttered angrily, but she merely sniggered as she bode farewell to Marlene and left the kitchen.

The ringing of his phone in his pocket broke the silence between him and Tifa as they walked the aisles of the shop, a long half hour of silence that he knew would be joining the hour he had to get back for his homework and many others that would probably be joining them. But he sighed when he read Cloud's name on the screen at the front.

"Why did I give you my number?" he asked in an annoyed tone the moment his phone was by his ear. There was a quiet chuckle from the other end.

"I need to talk to Tifa. Put her on please," Cloud asked, so Kadaj poked the brunette's arm with the screen half to get her attention.

"Yes?- oh!" Taking it from him she handed him the three things that she had been holding. "Go and try them on. They should fit." Growling as she nudged him towards the changing room once again, he vowed that he would never go shopping with Tifa again.

He'd already been in three times before, and each time he wished that he had died on the roof, even if he'd been lying in Cloud's arms. Anything was better than trying on clothes… Well, maybe not _anything. _Shopping with Mrs Stalinski suddenly came to mind, and made him cringe. It may have been random, but it was horrifying.

"Did they fit?" He merely grunted a reply to Tifa, and she sighed as she took them from him. "You're worse than Denzel. At least he was a little more positive. Here's your phone," she said, handing the sleek black item to his waiting palm. "Cloud is going to be here in a few minutes to try and help, but he's more hopeless than you. I mean, most of his wardrobe is the same thing…" As she continued to ramble once again, Kadaj sighed in hopeless defeat as his phone returned to his pocket. The whole experience just got worse.

Browsing through another section, Tifa held up a pair of plain black trousers.

"How about these?"  
"No."  
"What about—"

"No."  
"Urgh! You need school trousers! Just pick something!"  
"Fine."  
"And stop giving me one word answers!"

"Okay.."  
"Argh!"

With a smirk he started looking, glad that he was at least getting on her nerves more than he usually did. She seemed to have built up some kind of immunity to him over the past few days, but this showed some hope for some entertainment yet. Eventually, something caught his eye.

"These look better," he told her, pulling out the black jeans and showing them to her.

"If they fit, then sure. All we need then is a shirt—"  
"Are you two almost done?" Both turned at the sound of a new voice, and Tifa sighed in relief.

"Cloud, thank whatever higher being is watching us!" Clutching onto her friend by two arms tight around his ribcage, Tifa was like a small child as he looked down at her in surprise. "Why did I agree to go shopping?" Staring at her blankly for a second, Cloud soon looked over at Kadaj.

"What did you do to her?"

Hoping that it would be his last visit, Kadaj walked into the changing rooms once again with the black jeans in hand. They would be one of three things that he had actually picked himself, and he had to admit that he wasn't much of a shopper. Or a clothes shopper at least.

"Where are you Kadaj?" Tifa asked from beyond the door. Doing up the button at the front, he pulled the door open to see what she wanted.

"What?" he asked, and she looked at the jeans.

"They look good on you. But are you sure they'll let you wear them?" she asked cautiously. Cocking an eyebrow incredulously at her, Kadaj let her think about what she had just said as he turned to look at the mirror behind him instead.

He had to admit that her comment did not do him justice, as he thought he looked better than good. The jeans looked good too, fitted to his leg yet a little looser at the bottom and hid his shoes a little. With white stitching giving them a slightly different edge and style, he liked his choice.

"Anyway, Cloud said you'd probably rather this shirt if you're picking those trousers, so try it on," she said with a sigh, obviously worn out by their past hour of silence and browsing. He took it and closed the door again, looking at it curiously. He was a little suspicious of something that Cloud had picked out, but it didn't look like the shirt he had worn earlier to school. Pulling off the t-shirt and pulling the shirt on, he fastened the buttons before opening the door once again for the mirror outside.

"They go well together. So, do you want them?" Tifa asked, still holding a few things they had already agreed on. Kadaj nodded as he admired himself in the mirror, before she pushed him back into the changing room. "Then get out of them so I can pay for them! I know you want to get back as soon as possible, so hurry up!" Biting his tongue since he knew that what she said was the truth, he closed the door with a loud thud before changing back into his previous attire. After being in his new school clothes for even a brief moment, he grimaced as he pulled on the black t-shirt once again. He may have been vain, but he didn't care as he stepped out and handed her the clothes once again, following her back into the main shop where Cloud was standing with his hands holding whatever Tifa could no longer hold. In Kadaj's opinion, his vanity was one of the only things that kept him going.

The moment they were back in the bar, Kadaj went to his room. His ego was already damaged enough after being forced to carry one of the bags from the shop, so he wanted to change as soon as possible to regain some self confidence. Pulling his phone from his pocket and dropping it onto his bed, he remembered how he had first been caught by Tifa earlier and groaned when he realised that he had to go back downstairs to talk to Cloud. But first, he changed into some of his new clothes, abandoning what was no longer his on the floor to do whatever they did when he wasn't around.

Tall, Blond and Boring was sat by the bar with the paper in front of him, and when he heard the bottom step creak he turned his attention to Kadaj instead.

"I was incited by someone in school to stay with her and her friends at her house on Friday night," said the teen, though it seemed more like he was stating it as something he was doing rather than something he was asking about.

"Morgan's brother's friend, right?" asked Cloud, and Kadaj nodded as he leant against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Apparently they're going to the shopping district on Saturday too."  
"I can tell by your tone of voice that you're just letting me know where you'll be, not asking," he replied, looking back at the paper. Kadaj made no reply. He wouldn't mind going for the night, the group seemed alright though a little strange at times, and getting to know them better didn't seem like such a bad idea. But he had two days to change his mind, so he had time to make a final decision without a rush.

"But I agree with Tifa." Snapping back to attention after letting his mind drift a little, Kadaj stared at Cloud with wide eyed surprise.

"What?"  
"I know I haven't let you out the bar much, but I didn't get any phone calls from the school like I was expecting—"  
"Thanks for the vouch of confidence."  
"—So it's a good idea to let you spend some time with your friends. Come to the bar after school on Friday and I'll give you some money," he finished, folding the paper before getting up from his chair. Kadaj couldn't help but watch him incredulously.

"You're actually letting me go? I'm surprised I didn't feel the earth move."  
"Keep up the sarcasm and I'll lock you in your room."

Cloud passed him and started up the stairs, but a thought was still weighing heavily on Kadaj's mind and made him turn to follow.

"When can I get my bike?" he asked, causing Cloud to stop and look back down at him.

"Why're you asking all of a sudden?" Averting his gaze to the wall, Kadaj suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"I started thinking about my brothers, and I haven't stopped thinking about them all afternoon. If I have my bike, I can go and look for them." Coming down two steps so they were level, Cloud frowned.

"How do you know if they're even—"  
"They are alive," he cut across harshly, his gaze hardening into a glare as he looked up at him quickly, but soon looked away again. "Or at least… one of them is. It's like a feeling… at the very back of my head, and it keeps telling me…" His voice went quieter and quieter, until he eventually fell silent and scowled. "Urgh, never mind. It's not like it matters to you anyway. As long as I believe it, it's true." And with that, he pushed past Cloud and disappeared up the stairs.

R&R


	8. Beach

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

8. Beach

"Good morning Kadaj!" Ignoring Marlene as he made his way into the kitchen, the morning was far from good for Kadaj. After another sleepless night, he was ready to kill. Sitting down ungracefully at the table, he rested his head against the wood as Tifa placed a plate and cutlery in front of him.

"Come on Kadaj, or the others will leave without you," she said, but he didn't move for another three minutes until he gave in to his hunger and lifted his head. He may not have been very fond of Tifa, but at least she could cook decently.

As he picked up his fork there was a noise from the main bar, forcing a sigh from Tifa as she went through to the other room.

"We're not op- oh, hello!" Her change of tone confused Kadaj as his fork hung from his mouth, and his attention was drawn to whatever reply would return.

"Good morning Miss Tifa!" He turned his head in surprise to the door, before standing up and going over to look through into the bar. Stood in front of Tifa with a bag each slung over their shoulders were Lloyd and Claudia, the brunette conversing happily with Tifa whilst another younger brunette boy stood beside Lloyd. Both friends gave a light wave to him, so he pulled his fork from his mouth to speak.

"What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly, and Tifa turned as well when she realised he was stood by the door.

"Can't you at least say good morning to them first or something? You really are worse than Cloud," she huffed, her hands on her hips as she frowned at him. He glared, but soon stopped when he realised that his acquaintances were laughing lightly.

"Since you're one of the group, we thought we'd come by and walk with you to the train station. Nice uniform, by the way," said Claudia, and he glanced down at himself before noticing the fork still in his hand.

"Go and finish your breakfast," Tifa commanded, before looking back at the boy next to Lloyd. "I'll go and find Denzel for you."  
"Okay!" he nodded happily, and she smiled before going to the stairs and heading to the rooms above.

Turning back into the kitchen, he returned to his seat to continue sluggishly with his food, and barely registered the fact that the three from the main room had come to join him. Lloyd sat opposite him, his elbows on the table whilst he slowly drummed his fingers together, watching Kadaj in a contemplative fashion until the turquoise eyes locked on him, and he grinned.

"Good morning!"  
"Is it? Is it really?" Kadaj hung his head tiredly, before there was a prod to his shoulder. He looked up at Claudia, who was holding something out to him.

"Here's my old MP3 player. It only has a few albums, so ask me if you want anything else on it and I'll get it for you," she explained briefly.

Taking it from her hand he looked at it curiously. It was a small, silver device, rounded at the back whilst the screen and buttons at the front were covered by smooth, flat plastic. There were only four buttons at the front, a raised piece of plastic in the shape of a cross to separate them whilst the menu and volume buttons were above the screen before it rounded off. A long, white wire was wrapped around it, and two smoothly crafted earphones hung slightly between his fingers, made out of a rubbery covering that lead along the wires as well.

Reaching forward again, Claudia held down the menu button at the top.  
"Hold that down until it turns on, and do the same to turn it off. That's the volume next to it, and the buttons on the front explain themselves: play or pause, forward, back, and that's to change the repeat setting. Press the menu button once to access the options, and look through everything to figure it out. Scroll with the play and repeat buttons, and press the fast forward and rewind buttons to go through it too. If there's any other problem, just ask," she explained, and he nodded blankly before Tifa entered the kitchen with Denzel behind her.

"Hi Morgan!" said Denzel, and the boy next to Lloyd grinned before both left the room and eventually the building itself.

In her hands Tifa held Kadaj's school bag and another smaller bag, which she placed on the table beside him.

"Why are there two bags?" he asked, pointing to the smaller one with his fork.

"We have P.E first lesson. Don't you check your timetable in the morning?" Lloyd asked, before Tifa pointed to a piece of paper stuck by a magnet to the fridge.

"The school took the liberty of sending us your timetable, since Cloud asked just in case something were to… well, let's just say 'go wrong'," she told him, and he rolled his eyes before Cloud himself suddenly walked into the kitchen.

Kadaj couldn't care less, until he saw the blue item he had in his hand. It was placed on the table in front of him, making Kadaj stare at him suspiciously.

"Why are you giving it back to me?"

"You're going to take it to your combat teacher. I already called the school, so they know you're bringing it," he said sternly, and Kadaj growled as he picked it up and attached it to one of his belt loops nevertheless. Standing up, he slung his bag over his shoulder as he slid the MP3 player into his pocket, and took the smaller bag as he passed the table to leave the room.

"I was wondering how you were so good yesterday! If you just said that you had a sword, I seriously would have believed you!" said Lloyd, walking along beside Kadaj as Claudia walked a step ahead of them.

"I didn't think it was important."  
"It explains why you chose the katana too. Can I see it? Please?" Beginning to sound worryingly like a child, Lloyd's step had a slight spring to it as he almost bounced along, and when he started to continuously repeat the last word he said Kadaj felt his patience beginning to wear thin.

"Okay, just shut up!"

"Yay!"

Taking hold of the hilt Kadaj pulled it out with ease, leaving Lloyd to stare in awe at the dual bladed katana.

"Wow! And it actually, really, truly is yours? No strings attached?" he asked with interest. Kadaj nodded again, before Lloyd held out a hand. "How heavy is it?"

"Hey, why have you stopped?" Both looked up the street when there was a yell, and found Claudia already at the end and waiting for them.

"We have ten minutes woman! Just hold on for one second!" Lloyd yelled back, and they both saw her shake her head as she leant against a corner post.

Looking back at Kadaj, Lloyd looked as pleading and as innocent as possible.

"Please? I promise I won't drop it!"

"…Fine." If he wanted peace, this was the only way to go without any trouble or injury. Handing it to Lloyd, Kadaj watched as his hand fell considerably with the sudden weight.

"Whoa, how the hell to you hold it up so easily? It weighs a tonne!" he exclaimed as he brought his other hand up to the hilt, before holding it up.

"I'm used to it." Lloyd handed it back.

"Obviously! Damn, that thing's heavier than the broadsword at school! I envy you, especially with something like that in your arsenal," he said, before seething as he rubbed his wrist. "Come on, before that woman slays us for being late," he said, waiting until Kadaj had put Souba away before they continued up the street.

"Does your wrist still hurt?" Lloyd was still nursing his wrist as they stepped onto the train, and when Claudia noticed she frowned as they went to some spare seats. There was only one double seat left, so Lloyd was squashing Claudia against the window to make room for Kadaj, who remained standing until the black haired teen caught his sleeve and forced him to sit. Taking his sore hand, Claudia moved a black and silver chain bracelet around Lloyd's wrist before moving his hand gently.

"Ow!" He pulled back slightly as he seethed again.

"Sorry! But I think you should go and see a doctor about this. It looks like it's swollen a little since yesterday," she examined, before pushing her own sleeve up as he took his hand back. "Wear this for now, it'll help keep it a little more still," she said, pulling off a red and black studded wrist warmer and handing it to him. As carefully as he could he managed to get it over his hand, before pulling his shirt and coat sleeve down over it.  
"Better?" she asked, and he nodded as he tried not to elbow Kadaj. "Who knows, maybe this'll get you out of P.E!"

"Good morning moppets!" Upon entering the common room for the remaining half hour of free time before registration, Claudia was assaulted by a hyperactive body with very dark hair.

"Hey Sophie!" she replied happily, before the young woman let go of her and went for Lloyd next.

"Hi Lloyd! I haven't seen you since Tuesday!"

"You haven't seen any of us since Tuesday! Why are you crushing my bones and not Claudia's?" he managed to breath, before letting out a deep breath when she let go of him with a grin.

When she turned to Kadaj, she stopped and eyed him up and down in suspicion and curiosity.  
"Oh Kadaj, this is Sophie. Sophe, this is Kadaj. He joined Lloyd, Si and Dizzy's class yesterday," Claudia explained for her friend as she and Kadaj had a staring competition. Eventually, Sophie's face broke into a smile, and she held out a hand to shake.

"I like you. I think you'll fit in well!" He looked down at her hand blankly, but took it anyway to keep up appearances. He refused to be around someone he didn't like, so he had yet to judge her. If she was anything like Daisy, he'd learn to 'deal' with her.

Simon and Daisy were already sat at the table they had occupied the day before, so the latest people to enter the common room went to join them.

"I've only managed to write a page and half so far of that stupid essay! I can't find anything to write!" Daisy sighed, resting her head against the table in defeat.

"Don't worry, I feel your pain. But I did manage two pages," Simon attempted to console her with a reassuring pat on the back, whilst Kadaj remained silent. After the reaction he had from Lloyd and Claudia about how easy he found the lesson, he doubted they would be happy to hear he'd already finished his the night before.

"Hey, funky new threads Kadaj! When did you get them?" In a sudden change of personality, Daisy lifted her head whilst looking at his jeans. He sat cross legged as he leant back in his seat, shrugging half heartedly.

"Yesterday, after school," he replied simply, his ego getting a large boost as he smiled in an almost smug fashion.

"Are you sure you'll get away with it?" asked Claudia, but Lloyd merely brought an arm around Kadaj's shoulders as he grinned at her.

"You sound like your mother. Leave him along, he won't get caught!"  
"Only because you haven't either," she muttered in reply, but it only made his smile wider as he flicked a lock of spiked hair out of his face.

"You know you love me really!"

Registration went by in the blink of an eye, and soon enough Kadaj was following Lloyd to the gym again, Souba still attached to his belt until he was to give it to Mr Tribal inside. But as he neared the gym itself, the temptation became too great as he began to think of a plan.

"Whoa-what are you doing?" Lloyd asked when he was suddenly pulled away from the door. Dragging him along by the sleeve around the side of the building, Kadaj didn't stop until they were almost in the bushes that surrounded the bottom of the mountain behind the school. As Lloyd straightened his sleeve, Kadaj untied Souba from his belt loops. "What are you doing?" he repeated, watching as the blue scabbard was hidden strategically behind one of the bushes.

"We have a free lesson before lunch, so I can come back for it then. Come on, or we'll be late."

"What the hell are you doing this for? Cloud said you were supposed to take it to Mr Tribal," said Lloyd, following him back along the wall of the building.

"What's he going to do? Threaten me to death?" he scoffed, looking around the corner of the building carefully before stepping out when the coast was clear.

"Then I guess I was wrong about you. You're a pretty messed up dude." Kadaj looked back at Lloyd to find him smirking deviously.

"Are you going to rat me out?"

"No, and you'll see why once you get to know us a little more. Now get your ass in the gym! I've been threatened so many times by daily report that I never hear the end of it!" he replied with a laugh, before pushing his friend into the entrance hall of the building.

This time they had to change into their gym uniform, and Tifa had packed him a white polo shirt with the school emblem and black shorts that reached just below his knees. A pair of white trainers had been thrown in as well, which he only just recognised as he'd glanced at them the day before as Tifa paid for his new clothes. He pulled them on none the less, and when he walked into the main gym itself he was almost instantly confronted by the blond combat teacher.

"I heard from Mr Strife that you had a sword to leave with me for lessons." Looking momentarily at Lloyd, Kadaj shrugged.

"I left it on the train. I'll have it by the lesson though," he told him in a strangely believable tone. Mr Tribal Sighed lightly as he crossed his arms, but nodded understandingly.

"Alright, but if I find out otherwise I will be informing Mr Strife," he said sternly, before turning to the rest of the class. "Set up the crash mat. We're doing high jump today! Look lively people!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kadaj saw Lloyd hold his wrist lightly as he watched them set up the equipment. The red and black studded wristband was still around his arm, and his fingers played with the edge nervously.

"Uh oh…"

"Lloyd, you know the rules. Take it off," said the teacher. As carefully as possible he began to try and pull it off, but stopped as he winced and wrapped a hand around it again. He looked up at the teacher stood in front of them, who had noticed his injury.

"What's wrong?" he asked, walking over to them again. Lloyd turned away slightly to hide his arm.

"Nothing!" he said a little too quickly. Cocking an eyebrow, Mr Tribal held out a hand.

"Let me see your wrist," he ordered. At first the teen didn't move. "Lloyd, if you've hurt yourself you'll have to go and see the nurse," he added strictly. Sighing as he brought his wrist forward again, the teacher carefully moved the band up his arm before feeling his wrist carefully. He frowned before looking at Kadaj.

"Go with him to the nurse's office, and make sure he gets there," he sighed almost impatiently, as if it had happened many time before to him and he was beginning to get bored of the situation as he looked back at Lloyd. Kadaj nodded, and they both left the gym.

"Hold on a second, help me get this off." Stopping just outside the doors of the gym, Kadaj was halted when Lloyd caught his arm with his good hand. He held up his bad wrist.

"Why?" he asked, bemused.

"I'm not supposed to be wearing it or my bracelet, and the nurse'll probably cut the band if I can't get it off over my hand," he explained, managing to unclip the black and silver chain and slip it into his pocket before going back to the band.

"So what if they cut it? Claudia could buy another one—"

"That's not the point!" Lloyd suddenly snapped. There was silence between them; Kadaj watching him through narrowed eyes as Lloyd gazed at the ground guiltily. "Sorry, I just don't want to break it. She'll kill me if I do."  
"It's only a wristband."  
"Yeah, but you don't know how she got it," he mumbled, before bringing his thumbs underneath the edge to begin pulling it off once again. "…Ow, damn it!"

After several similar exclamations Kadaj caved. Bringing his hands to the band, he pushed his fingers underneath and stretched it wider to let Lloyd's hand through. As carefully as he could he pulled it through, biting his lip hard until he was free.

"Wow, that thing really did help…" he muttered in surprise, before looking at Kadaj. "Thanks. Don't know what I'd do without you."

"Let's go, unless you want a detention," Kadaj smirked, handing the wristband back to him.

"Hello Lloyd, I haven't seen you here for a while!" The nurse was cheerful as they entered, but the teen being admitted was not in such spirits as he hardly forced a smile in return.

"Uh, hi."  
"What have you done now?" she asked, and he held his wrist up feebly.

"I don't know."  
"Hm…" she took his hand carefully with a thoughtful gaze, and pressed the joint gently with her fingers, making him wince again. "It seems to be a simple sprain, nothing too serious. I'll wrap it in a bandage for you now, just to make sure you don't move it too much. When did it happen?" she asked, turning from him and going to one of the cabinets on the wall.

"Uh…" He looked from her to Kadaj, then back at the nurse before sighing.

"Yesterday, before lunch. It wasn't so bad yesterday, but then I knocked it again when I was playing some game against Claudia on her brother's game console."  
"Hold up your arm," she ordered, and he complied before she began to wrap the bandage carefully around his wrist.

"I guess this means I won't be doing P.E. then."  
"Damn, I knew that game would get me injured one day! Stupid bongos…" Muttering several curses under his breath as they walked back to the gym, Lloyd was poking his wrist agitatedly as Kadaj merely rolled his eyes.

"Stop complaining. It's getting on my nerves," he said, before Lloyd began to poke his arm instead.

"Well sorry Mr 'I-have-to-hide-my-sword'!"

"Why are you doing that?"

"I don't know, I just feel the need to poke something…" he replied. The victim batted his hand away, but Lloyd continued until Kadaj did it again. After a brief moment of silence his hand came up again, so his finger was caught instead.

"Stop it!"  
"Never!"  
"What if I break your finger?" he asked, squeezing his fingers slightly. Lloyd nodded quickly.

"Okay!" he exclaimed with his nod, and once he was released he wrapped his arms tightly around Kadaj's. "I'm Sorry Kadaj! I weally wub you vewy much!" he said in a childish voice, making Kadaj scowl in a mix of confusion and some kind of disturbance. But if this was his morning, he had a suspicious feeling that the afternoon would be much worse.

"Ah, good timing Kadaj! You can give the high jump a try now!" The moment they stepped back into the gym Kadaj was surprised by the sudden order. There hadn't been any consolation for Lloyd and his newly bandaged wrist, but an order was an order, no matter whom by. Stepping up to the front of a line that had somehow formed in their absence, he took a moment to take in the height of the bar and the distance he had, before starting his run up to the bar and crash mat. It hadn't been high to begin with, and as he predicted he cleared it with ease and was soon stepping off the mat once again.

"Well done! You should try for the Sports day competitions during the summer, I think you'd do well in a few other events as well," said the teacher in praise as the next pupil tried, but the bar fell as they knocked it with their foot by accident.

For the rest of the lesson Lloyd was sat at the side lines, conversing with Kadaj whenever he was near enough to be spoken to before they were told to go and change. They were soon back out in the sunshine, where Simon was waiting for them to go and find the last three of their group in the technology block.

"You're not as active as you normally are after P.E. Lloyd. What's up?" asked their silver and black haired acquaintance. Lloyd pulled up his sleeve to reveal the bandage.

"I hurt my wrist during Combat yesterday, and playing that darned video game at Claudia's house afterwards didn't help either. I can't move it at all now," he sighed sadly. Simon looked at him suspiciously.

"Isn't that your writing hand?" he asked, before Lloyd lifted his head with a devious grin.

"Yes."  
"You lucky git! Well, not that lucky: I heard that your Black Magic teacher is off ill today, so you guys might have a free lesson."  
"Really? Cool, we could go down to the beach then!"  
"Beach?" Kadaj asked as they walked down the hill from the gym to the tech block. Both companions nodded.

"You know the path you went down to hide your sword?" Lloyd asked, and Kadaj nodded whilst Simon looked lost. "There's a path behind the bushes that leads along the bottom of the mountain. It's a ten minute walk to a beach that our year and the year above normally go to during lunch or free lessons. None of the teachers know about it either, which is a plus side."  
"Why is it a plus side?"

"It's a great place to mitch lessons!"  
"Why did you hide your sword?" Simon finally asked, but both looked at each other before Lloyd smiled secretively.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it! Let's just get down to the tech block before those women go and bust our hides."  
"Yo dudes, where've you been?" Claudia asked the moment Lloyd sat in the seat beside hers. She and Daisy were sat at one of the large tables in the Textiles room, whilst Sophie rejoined them from a computer amongst a row that lined one of the separating walls. There were five different rooms in the technology block, each one for a different department whilst the largest room in the centre was filled with computers. The textiles room was also joined to the Food technology class, and was also scattered with embroidery and sewing machines, chairs, papers, pens, needle boxes, pencil crayons, school bags, technology files… and only the three girls before the boys had entered.

One such file lay sprawled in front of Claudia, with various types of paper lying around her whilst Daisy sat in the chair on her other side. Lloyd sighed as he leant back in his seat and put his feet up on the table.

"Sorry, it took me a while to change back because of my wrist. Tribal saw me with your wrist band and told me to go and see the nurse," he explained as Kadaj sat in a chair opposite them. Curiously he looked over some of the closer sheets covered in drawings and colours and a lot of writing. Claudia eyed Lloyd suspiciously.

"Because of a wristband?"  
"What-no! Because he saw me having trouble taking it off. But at least I got a bandage," he replied, pulling up his sleeve to show his friend. She held out her hand.

"So I can have my band back then?" she asked, but he soon pulled up his other sleeve to reveal what she was asking for

"Of course not!" he smiled, and she flicked his arm in punishment before going back to her work.

"Hey, don't be an evil pie!" exclaimed Sophie, and both looked up at her whilst pointing at themselves.

"Who?"  
"Both of you!" she finished. Claudia stuck her tongue out at Lloyd, who merely poked it with his finger before wiping it on her sleeve as she grimaced.

"Ew!"

Kadaj sat and watched them, still musing slightly over the 'evil pie' that the Sophie girl had come out with. Judging from the size of the files, he assumed there was a lot of work involved with Technology, and judging from the writing she had he assumed there was a lot of written work, which made him shudder. A3 sized sheets of his writing would be filled disturbingly fast, which made him glad that he hadn't even considered taking Technology. Turning to Sophie after five minutes, he looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"'Evil Pie'?" He almost couldn't bring himself to say it, but she nodded happily all the same.

"It's my phrase, though people tend to steal it." Her faze suddenly grew dark as she glared daggers at the brunette still working, bringing up a clenched hand in a threatening fashion.

"Down Sophie. It isn't nice to scare people," said Claudia, eyes glued to the file in front of her.

"That's directed at you Claudia!"

"Go talk a long walk off a short cliff, I'm working."

Lloyd obviously hadn't grasped the concept as he continued to prod her arm, but he jumped a mile when a voice suddenly boomed through the room.

"Lloyd Greyson, get your feet off the table!"  
"Holy Hell!" Almost falling off his chair since he had been leaning back on the two back legs, he fell against the table as the teacher stepped back out of the room once again.

"Damn, that woman's like… evil in a not so good disguise!" he exclaimed, sitting up straight in his chair once again whilst crossing his arms and leaning against the table in a huff.

"At least we don't have her during lessons anymore. It's only Mr Gryffyths," said Daisy, playing with a lock of Claudia's hair.

"Why are you all annoying me?" the brunette whined, resting her forehead against the table dejectedly instead.

"Because you're sitting still for long enough," came Daisy' reply, making her friend groan as Lloyd continued to poke her with an amused look on his face.

"You're pokeable!"

"Come on Claudia, it's a nice day outside and you're cooped up in here," said Simon, leaning against Lloyd's shoulder as he stood beside him. But Claudia shook her head.  
"No, the teacher wanted this done by Monday, so if I don't do it now then I never will!" she replied, sitting up and pulling another sheet towards herself. But Lloyd sat up and brought his arm across the sheets, making her turn her head to him instead with a frown.

"Don't worry about it, you can do it tonight! Then you have Sunday to do it too, 'cause we won't be there!" he reassured her, but she still looked troubled.  
"But…"  
"Hey, you and Sophie are the ones who always stay behind to do work, and it's unfair to leave you out anymore. We're all friends, right?" he asked with a smile, and she nodded slowly.

"Yeah, but—"  
"Then I refuse to hear anything against it! Come on!" he said brightly, standing up from his chair and starting towards the door.

"I'll catch up with you later. Besides, we have Black Magic next. The teacher might've sent in some work or something—"

She stopped when Lloyd sighed loudly, and her eyes went wide as he walked back towards her.

"Dizzy, pack up her stuff," he told the lighter brunette. Claudia caught the edge of the table tightly with her hands.

"No! You're not doing that again!" she exclaimed, but he brought his arms beneath her knees and around her back all the same, and picked her up from her chair whilst Daisy started arranging the papers into a large folder behind her.

"Lloyd Greyson, put me down this instance! I won't tolerate this kind of behaviour!" Claudia yelled, her hands slipping from the table as her black haired friend stood up properly. He merely laughed.

"You don't have much of a choice! Simon, you take her bag and Kadaj could you take mine?" he asked, walking back towards the door where Sophie stood waiting.

"I swear Lloyd—"

"That's rude."  
"Urgh!" Reaching up, she slapped him around the head as he continued to laugh, whilst Kadaj followed along after them with Simon and Daisy. Compared to his own, the weight was barely applicable as he carried it on his shoulder, but he thought nothing of it as he followed them back into the sunlight outside.

Luckily Daisy and Sophie had picked up their P.E. bags before leaving, and he was glad he had Lloyd's bag since it was lighter than his other burden. Lloyd had put Claudia down by now, but was forced to carry her technology folder since he had 'kidnapped' her.

"I hate you," he muttered to Claudia as they entered the middle branch of the corridor, but Claudia giggled as she walked beside him.

"You know you love me really!"

"Pah, it's all bribery and you know it." Going up to him she brought her arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer as she grinned and laughed lightly.

"Quiet, my performing monkey!"

"Hey!" he pouted, but she rubbed her cheek against his none the less.

"Cheer up, we can mess about in Black Magic no matter if there is work!"

"Well now is the perfect time to go and check! Let's go!"  
"Hey, who made you leader of this outfit?"

"Wahey! No work!" Lloyd dropped Claudia's folder as he looked across the top of the desk, clapping his hands happily before doing a strange victory dance that made Kadaj step away more than he had to avoid the falling item. Claudia soon rectified the weird occurrence by slapping him across the head.

"Don't be a dork, or we'll throw you through a window!"

"Ow… You know, all these hits to the back of the head are probably not doing me any good…"

"So we're going down to the beach then?" asked Simon, resulting in a sore nod from Lloyd whilst Claudia frowned.

"The beach? But what if the lesson's been moved to a different class?" she asked. Sophie linked arms with her.

"It doesn't matter for me and Simon. We have a free lesson anyway, but then he has History," she said, before Lloyd brought his arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry, no one will care if you miss one lesson!" he reassured her, before realising that he'd dropped her file. "Besides…" he continued, bending down to pick it up. "…if there's no work, there's no lesson. We have until lunch on the beach!"

"Well, I guess you're right…" she sighed, before forcing a smile. "Okay then!"

"Great! Let's take our bags to the cloakroom before we go! We'll come back here for lunch too!"

"Again: who made you ring leader?"

Ignoring their echoing footsteps down the hallway as they headed to the main corridor, the straps of Kadaj's gym bag were brushing against the floor as he walked behind the others, Lloyd's bag back with its owner as aquamarine eyes watched the group before him. The group of five seemed to split during conversation: Simon and Daisy were speaking contently to each other as they walked, Lloyd and Sophie were laughing at something that had happened the previous year during some class they had, whilst Claudia walked in silence beside Lloyd, seemingly in a world of her own as she watched the ground pass beneath her. Everyone was outside yet again in the glowing sunlight during their short break between lessons, leaving them to wonder the halls along apart for the occasional teacher of pupil. Eventually Lloyd helped Claudia rejoin the conversation by nudging her arm lightly, before looking back at Kadaj.

"Are you with us or not Kadaj?" he joked, moving over slightly to let him join the group between himself and Sophie.

"So what should we do for the next two hours?" asked Sophie, and almost everyone gave a shrug in reply.

"I have White Magic next, remember? Then both Simon and I have History, so you'll have to come back in time to meet me outside the cabin," said Daisy, prodding her silver and black haired friend in the arm as she turned up towards the Science corridor. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"

"Bye Dizzy!" the two remaining girls chirruped as they turned towards the opposite end of the hall, and Simon gave her a small wave as he walked beside Sophie instead.

"People, you still haven't answered my question!"

"Dude, we'll be lying in the sunshine for ages. We can think of what to do when we get bored," replied Claudia, still not looking happy about their plans. Lloyd linked his arm with hers.

"Cheer up, it's not like we'll be missing anything important," he attempted to reassure her again, but she sighed.

"But what if the supply teacher has the work, like in Maths last year? We could get in trouble!"

"If we do, blame me. Tell them I dragged you away or something."  
"That wouldn't be the best thing to say to an annoyed teacher…"

Making sure to pick up Souba as they passed its hiding place, Kadaj decided to keep it with him since they were going somewhere where he could keep an eye on it without trouble. The back of the gym was only a short climb over the rocks to a path hidden by the bushes, and it wasn't long before they could see a small cove with yellow sand and a few large, smooth stones to decorate. Cliffs dominated the opposite end of the beach, tall rocks near the bottom where two pupils had already placed their bags whilst playing Frisbee on the sand itself. They gave a small sign of greeting to them, and soon enough their bags were abandoned near the smoother rocks and out of the sunlight.

Lloyd was sprawled on the ground in no time, his head resting on his arms as he sighed contently in the warmth of the sun.

"Hey, maybe we should bury him," suggested Simon, and they all laughed as he sat up in the next instant.

"That's just plain mean!" he whined as the offending teenager sat down beside him, leaning back against his bag as he looked out across the ocean.

"Man, you sound like Claudia's sister," he joked with a humoured smile, resulting in a pout from his friend as the brunette sat on his other side.

"Say something against my sister, Lloyd, and I will tell her," she added to the conversation, making him growl agitatedly as he crossed his arms.

"No fair!"

Sitting down beside Simon, Souba resting on his lap as he looked around the cove, Kadaj realised just how childish Lloyd was around his friends. Pulling out his newly received MP3 player, he was about to switch it on when there was a shadow looming over him. He looked up at Lloyd, who was holding a stick of driftwood in his hand.

"Want to practice a little for Duelling last lesson? We're writing today, so we may as well do something," he offered, holding out the stick in his hand. As he thought it over, he looked around the beach for another piece of driftwood that he could use.

"Alright, and I'll go easy on you too," he mocked, standing up and going over to a nearby stick. Picking it up, he studied the length.

"Isn't that a little too long?" asked Claudia from her seat between Simon and Sophie, since Lloyd seemed too angered by Kadaj's last comment to ask himself. It was a relatively thick piece of wood, but he held it up as if he were going to break it nevertheless.

"How do you expect to break—" Simon started, but Kadaj soon bought the wood down and broke it in half across his knee, before holding one piece out for Lloyd to take, leaving the other three speechless. "…Never mind then…"

Taking one of the sticks he now had, Lloyd looked fierce, but it didn't seem to faze Kadaj as he stood like he had the day before, poised and ready to fight.

"Ready?" he asked cockily, and he saw the scarlet eyes narrow sharply before swinging the sword-stick towards him. Kadaj could already see a fault in Lloyd's fighting style, before remembering his injured wrist as he avoided another right handed swipe. Swapping the stick to his other hand, Lloyd looked confused for a second before continuing as he had before, and Kadaj seemed no different as he fought with his right hand instead of his left. He defended against most of the black haired teen's attacks, avoiding any others until he had a basic idea of when to attack, and soon turned on the offensive to 'practice', as Lloyd had put it earlier. His opponent appeared to be having difficulty, until eventually he was forced against one of the rocks by a stick to the neck. Kadaj smirked.

"Had enough?" he asked, but as expected Lloyd quickly ducked out of the way and tried to fight again.

Taking it easy once again and going at a more relaxed pace than usual, Kadaj waited once again for a slackening in Lloyd's fighting ability before striking, or attempting to strike, Lloyd's stick once again. He liked keeping him on his toes, and changed his style often to see if the scarlet eyed male could keep up. Unfortunately he couldn't, and soon fell backwards over a log hidden in the sand. The branch in Kadaj's hand was against his neck again and there were cheers from the few people in the cove, mainly from the three sat by their bags.

"Woo! Go Kadaj!" Claudia cheered with Sophie, and both glanced over at them before Lloyd knocked the tip of the stick away from himself before jumping to his feet and gazing hard at Kadaj. Both were beginning to feel the heat from above, but Lloyd's fatigue was more evident as his shoulders revealed how heavy he was beginning to breathe, and he soon wiped his brow with his sleeve. The look of sheer determination was enough to show Kadaj that he was pretty pissed about loosing twice, so he held his stick up once again to show he was ready. He was already coming up with a plan, since he knew that if he didn't let him win this one he would never speak to him again.

Lloyd stepped forward, and as expected he went straight on the offensive, though this time his attacks were a little less predictable. Forced to concentrate more on what the possibilities of his next move were, he didn't realise how focused he was until Lloyd paused suddenly, staring at his eyes. He soon came back to his senses when Kadaj struck back, but he slowed his attacks down slightly to let Lloyd strike him. Making it seem like he had missed and stepped forward by accident, he turned in time to protect his arm from Lloyd's branch of driftwood before falling to the ground as if he had been hit. Proudly though still breathing hard, Lloyd held the point to Kadaj's neck whilst cheers came from his three friends still sat in the sand.

"Well done Lloyd!" He turned his head to see Claudia jumping onto Lloyd and making the teen stumble slightly, whilst Simon and Sophie came over to him and helped him back onto his feet.

"You did well Kadaj!" said Sophie, giving him a firm pat on the back.

"You let him win, didn't you?" Simon asked quietly, already knowing the answer. Looking at his two friends conversing happily, Kadaj eventually nodded.

"It was hard though. I hate loosing when it's a real loss," he replied, but Simon only smiled as he did the same as Sophie and patted him on the back.

"You did the right thing. I don't think he'd look at you again if you beat him all three times."

"At least I know that I would've won. I'll ruin his day with it sometime in the future though."

R&R


	9. Peace

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

9. Peace

Compared to the school, the cove was tranquil and quiet around them, the waves making their lazy way up the shore being the only real noise as they spoke to each other. Barely listening to any conversation around him, everything seemed much simpler without the words of opinion, though everyone's opinion of him counted the most, more than anything at the moment for school. By watching others, it appeared that image was ranked higher than the education itself, which he didn't mind since it was easier to portray an image than to show intelligence. His handwriting was proof of that.

* * *

R&R


	10. Storm

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

10. Storm

"Can I ask you something Kadaj?" Turning his attention to Lloyd, he gave a small nod to show he could proceed. "What happened to your eyes? They went kind of… weird just now, like a cat's eyes," he said, bringing everyone in the small group to look at him. He looked around them all cautiously, slowly stepping back. He had no explanation to give them; it was something that had always happened naturally to him and his brothers, only when they were fighting someone or something. It improved his sight, and that was about all he knew.

"It just happens… I don't know how," he replied awkwardly, having no better way to phrase it.

"It happened yesterday too. Freaked me out a little, but I guess it doesn't matter," he said with an airy wave of his hand, before looking around the beach. "So… what should we do now?"

One of the people on the beach cursed loudly, making the small group turn to look with interest at the two that had been sat on the rock. They were looking up towards the top cliffs, where something blue was caught in between the rocks.

"Man, talk about aim. That looks lodged pretty deep," commented Simon, bringing a hand to shield his eyes as they all looked up. The sky blue and navy disk was obvious against the dark grey stone, a small ledge a short distance above it making it accessible to reach, but the climb didn't seem to be safe as there didn't appear to be any firm areas for footing.

Pulling his tie over his head, Lloyd handed it to Sophie as he looked up at the Frisbee.

"I'll go and get it!"

"With a busted wrist? I don't think so—" Claudia began, but he started towards the rocks without a second glance. "Stupid ass…" she muttered, watching him as he started making his way up the side of the cliff.

"Don't worry about it Lloyd, we'll get it later!" said the owner of the Frisbee, but the teen continued without hesitation.

Kadaj sighed as he watched him, crossing his arms as he stood with the others. He had to admit though: for an immature teenager Lloyd was a decent climber, even with an injured wrist. A gasp ran through the others when he slipped a fair distance up the cliff, but he easily regained his footing and continued climbing once again. It didn't take more than five minutes to reach the correct ledge, and as he looked down towards the disk he soon swung his leg over and stood on a smaller ledge underneath, before reaching towards it and keeping a firm hold on the edge of the rock. Leaning further, it brushed his fingertips, forcing him to try and reach once again as he heard a distinct cracking from beneath him. There was a yell from the beach, before his footing fell slack underneath him and he began to fall. Holding the edge even tighter than before, his feet could find nowhere new to support his weight, and he could feel his fingers beginning to slip as the earth came loose. Forced to drop the Frisbee, he brought his other hand to the edge but almost fell again as the pain from his wrist shot down his arm, keeping his hand from the ledge.

Looking down, he instantly regretted his action as the world spun around him, and as he looked up again he found Kadaj reaching down and grabbing his arm. He started pulling him back up, his hand catching the collar of his shirt to pull him up a little better.

"This would be much easier if you'd kept your tie on!"

"Just pull me up!" Reaching up and holding Kadaj's arm tightly, he eventually pulled himself high enough to hoist his legs back up onto the ledge, where he lay down on his side tiredly and shut his eyes.

"Okay, now you can just leave me here until lunch time…" he breathed heavily, rubbing his sore arm as Kadaj sat down and leant back on his arms.

"I agree with Claudia: you really are a stupid ass…" he replied, brushing his hair out of his face with a heavy sigh.

"At least I got the Frisbee down!"  
"And don't think about going down yourself for a while. The two of them want to 'whoop your ass', as they put it, for coming up here to start with. Simon left a few minutes after you started climbing, and he owes Sophie lunch."

"What? Why?"

"They made a bet: Simon said if you fell, he'd buy Sophie lunch."  
"Damn him! I'll fry his ass for ruining my luck!"  
"Why do you all keep saying 'ass'? It's getting on my nerves!"

Climbing back down the rocks, Lloyd kept his gaze from the two girls stood on the sand with the owners of the Frisbee, but the moment he was back on the beach he had no choice. Rushing towards him, he was surprised by Claudia as she suddenly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and almost knocked him over, but he merely bumped lightly into Kadaj instead as he stepped off the rocks behind him.

"You moron! If you didn't die when you fell—"  
"I know, I know! But I didn't, right?" he replied, but she smacked him head none the less.

"Don't sound so pleased with yourself! You could've died!"

"Stop doing that!"  
"I bet you haven't thanked Kadaj yet for saving your hide either!" said Sophie, crossing her arms as she glared at him, Claudia soon standing by her in the same fashion. He glared back, before turning dejectedly towards Kadaj.

"Thanks, I guess…" Claudia kicked his back side. "Ow!"

"Say it properly!" she ordered, and he sighed agitatedly as he turned back again.  
"'It properly'!" Sophie kicked him instead. "Ow! What are you: donkeys?"

"You're the ass around here! Now say it, or we'll be here all day!" she ordered in a more threatening tone than Claudia had before her. Growling angered profanities, he turned back to Kadaj with a less-than-happy look.

"Thanks for… ugh, saving me. Damn, it sounds so corny!" Claudia flicked his arm. "What the hell was that for?"  
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Turning to Kadaj with a much brighter look on her features, Sophie smiled at Kadaj.

"That was so cool! I've never seen anyone climb the rocks so fast!" she said in amazement. Kadaj merely smirked smugly, and remained silent. This was enough of an ego trip without his comments making it worse. Claudia turned to him with a large smile as well.

"Thanks so much! I don't know what we would've done if he fell!" She hugged his arm like Lloyd had done that morning. "That was really amazing, how you managed to lift him up so easily! Lloyd was right: you really are strong!"  
"Wow, second day here and he already has fangirls!" the Frisbee owner joked, before holding up the Frisbee itself. "Who wants to play with us? Just don't aim for any rocks!"

The girls seemed enthusiastic, but Lloyd turned away in a quiet demeanour.

"Lloyd?" Claudia asked, concern in her voice as she watched him walk away slowly. He lifted a hand half heartedly.

"I'm going to sit down…" Suddenly forgetting about the Frisbee, the brunette went after him, followed closely by Sophie whilst Kadaj took his time behind them. They were only going to their bags, so there was no need to rush.

"What's up Lloyd?" his emerald eyed friend asked cautiously, sitting down beside him with her legs crossed.

"Nothing…" he muttered, arms crossed over his knees as he rested his head upon them.

"…Would you like to borrow my jumper?" As Kadaj stood beside him, he turned his head slightly at her bemusing question.

"What?" he asked, and she gestured to the front and right arm of his shirt, which were covered in a dark mud and even torn where it had caught on the rock. "Oh…" Laughing lightly, she pulled off the dark jumper before holding it out to him, and as he took it his tie landed on his head.

"Stop giving me your tie! I swear I'll shred it one day!" said Sophie, and he looked up at her incredulously before pulling it down and tidying his collar once again.

"I'm just glad you didn't fall!" Claudia exclaimed ecstatically, tackling him to the ground before he had a chance to pull on the jumper.

"So what should we do now?" asked Sophie, sitting beside Claudia as Lloyd sat up again. But a shrug was all she received in reply. "Man, don't any of you plan for the future?"

"Nope. But I didn't think I'd be down here at the moment, so that's my excuse," said the brunette, brushing the sand from herself and her friend's black hair. So Sophie looked up at Kadaj' instead.

"Any ideas or sugg—"  
"Hey, you didn't ask me!" Lloyd butted in rudely, sitting up a little straighter to get noticed. Sophie frowned and waved him out of the way.

"Let our new friend decide something for once!"  
With a severely annoyed look, he turned away and looked out across the ocean instead, so both girls looked up at Kadaj again.

"So, is there anything in particular that you want to do?" asked Claudia, but he shook his head.

"It's probably better to ask Lloyd."  
"Fine, your funeral," sighed Sophie, but Claudia merely looked at her friend with a smile.

"What did you have in mind Lloyd?"  
"Nothing." Her smile turned to a frown.

"Huh? Then why—"

"I just didn't like the fact that you left me 'till last. I'm normally the first person you ask!"  
"You selfish little git!" Sophie exclaimed with a laugh, but Claudia leant forward and whispered something quickly into her ear, which made her sigh as she nodded. Claudia turned back to look at the scarlet eyed young man.

"Don't worry Lloyd, you'll be the first person we ask next time!"

"Humph…"

"Stop being a selfish tick and cheer up!" Sophie huffed, hands on her hips as she looked over at him. He glared again, before the brunette nudged him gently.

"Come on Lizzie! Or I'll take my jumper back and let you get a row for getting dirty." Quickly, Lloyd pulled the black piece of clothing on properly.

"Fine, but stop calling me 'Lizzie' in public!"

Crossing his arms thoughtfully, he was sat in silence for a moment whilst they all watched him expectantly, before he suddenly stood up and brushed himself off.

"Well?" asked Sophie. He was still for a few more seconds, before turning quickly and tapping Kadaj's arm.

"Tag, you're it!" he exclaimed cheerfully before dashing away across the sand. Rushing to their feet and moving away as quickly as possible, both girls were laughing as they ran in two separate directions. Confused, Kadaj looked from his arm to Lloyd, who was watching him smugly.

"Come on Kadaj! Catch us if you can!" he yelled from across the beach to mock him. Looking from one to another, he soon started after Sophie since she was the closest to him, and she gave a comic squeal as she tried to escape.

"Hey, maybe we should go to lunch." Looking at his phone, Lloyd was out of breath after racing Claudia back to their bags near the rocks. Most of their time had been spent playing tag, but once the brunette in glasses fell over they settled to playing Frisbee with Helena and Jack instead. Pulling her bag closer to herself, Claudia pulled out her own phone to check the screen.

"Hey, I have a message!... Weird, Tabby'll be waiting for us at the train station later. I wonder why…"  
"Stop wondering and pick up your bag! I want lunch today, thank you very much." Sophie said before Lloyd could think of a reply as she picked up her own bag, before starting after Jack and Helena as they started climbing the rocks back to the path. Kadaj picked up his bag and the Souba beside it before doing the same as Claudia, though he already assumed that he wouldn't have any messages. The only people who had ever texted him more than once a week were his brothers, and even then they hadn't done so very often.

"We'll leave you behind if you don't join the land of the living soon, Kadaj." He looked up when Lloyd spoke to him, and found him turning back to follow Claudia towards the rocks.

The area outside the gym was clear as they made their way back, and as they walked towards the corridor Claudia flipped her phone open once again. She stopped dead in her tracks, causing Kadaj to step to the side to narrowly avoid her.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed dramatically, causing Lloyd to stop in the doorway as the door swung shut.

"Ow!"

"What?" Kadaj asked her since he was stood beside her, but she showed him the screen instead of replying verbally.

"What's wrong?" Lloyd asked as he rubbed the back of his head sorely. He turned her hand so the screen faced him, and smiled in a sinister fashion. "Ha! Sucks to be you!"

"What's so bad about going to the shopping district? I thought she was your sister," said Kadaj, blissfully unaware of what was going on until the words came from Claudia's mouth.

"It's her wedding next week, so she's going to go and check up on things now." She pointed at the two of them, a disturbing smile coming to her lips as it vanished from Lloyd's. "She wants you two to come too."  
"W-what? You can't be serious!" exclaimed Lloyd, and she nodded as she laughed lightly.

"She's going to the tailor to check on her dress in case she wants any changes, so she wants you to get fitted for something. She's being real specific about this, so be warned!"  
"Damn!"

"What about me?" Kadaj asked, confused by what was going on. He didn't know what a wedding was.

"Oh, she said last night that she wouldn't mind getting to know you if you're my friend. She's really nice, so don't worry about a thing."  
"Humph, nice my ass," scoffed Lloyd, and he was promptly flicked on the back of the head. "Ow! That area's tender!"  
"She is nice. She just knows Lloyd too well after ten years."  
"She's evil!" the black haired teen whined, elongating the first syllable of 'evil' as he covered his head with his arms and walked oddly towards the door to the main corridor.

"You took your time! Come on, Si and Dizzy already went down when I told them you were coming," Sophie explained, standing next to her hook in the cloak rooms. They were as empty as they had been when they had passed through earlier, only a staff member from the office walking briskly with a letter in hand as the remaining three hung their bags as well. The woman sent a dark look towards them, but disappeared beyond the corner before Kadaj could shoot back a glare of his own. Sophie tugged his shirt sleeve to get his attention, and he followed them down to the canteen with his money in his pocket, vowing to get his pointless revenge.

There were two sections to the canteen: one a calming light lavender whilst the other was a soft powder blue, but the same type of tables dominated both. They were white and made up of two separate sections, six seats along both sides, giving twelve seats for each complete table, though the round black seats were fitted in place. The lavender coloured section served a wide variety of food on traditional ceramic plates with silver cutlery, whilst everything was disposable in the powder blue area since the food was a lot simpler.

Waiting in the queue in the purple canteen, Daisy waved brightly at them as they entered, before Kadaj spotted Simon already sat at one table with a glass of water.

"Which canteen should we go for?" asked Claudia, looking from one to another. Lloyd walked to the powder blue canteen, where Sophie was already picking up a tray.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going this way with Sophie," he replied, taking a tray for himself. With a shrug Claudia followed, and Kadaj felt he had no other choice and eventually went with the majority. Taking a bottle of water from a fridge next to the trays, and eventually a ham salad sandwich, he found that lunch was much cheaper in school than in town, but at the cost of no taste. Once they sat down and the two from the other canteen had come to join them, Kadaj discovered that the tomatoes from the sandwich had turned the bread to mush, putting him off food as he paid more attention to his water instead. Luckily, Sophie was kind enough to share her chips.

"Double dose of Combat… man, I'd normally be happy, but he's making us write!" Lying on the grass between the Technology Block and the first corridor, Lloyd groaned as he covered his eyes with his arm. Simon kicked his feet in passing.

"Why are you complaining? You can't even write."

"Which means I'll be sat there for two hours doing nothing!"  
"Cheer up, you'll have Kadaj with you!" Claudia chirruped, and Lloyd glanced at who she had mentioned. Kadaj seemed to be in a world of his own, staring blankly ahead of himself. Writing… for two hours? His hand would be cramped for days.

"Joy," came Lloyd's sarcastic reply, and whilst Kadaj seemed unable to reply the brunette with glasses frowned at him instead.

"What's wrong with a lesson with Kadaj?" she asked, before Daisy nudged her lightly. She turned and found her smiling brightly.

"You know he's only joking! He does it to all of us!"

Somehow, just by the look still lingering on his face, Kadaj could tell that Lloyd was not in a friendly mood.

Extending an arm, Sophie soon prodded Claudia to get her attention.

"Come on, Mr Gryff said he wanted to see us at lunch, remember?" she said, looking over at Daisy as well before standing up. "He should be back from lunch by now." Pulling her glasses up onto her head, Claudia groaned.

"Do I have to?"

"Come on, I'll go too!" said Lloyd, hooking his arms under hers and pulling her to her feet, laughing at the comic squeak of surprise that came from her lips. But Sophie shook her head.  
"No. Sir said to make sure you three stay outside for now. Or you two, at least. I don't think he knows Kadaj well enough, but I'm afraid it's all three of you at the moment, just in case," she said in a firm tone, her hands on her hips. Lloyd pouted, but said nothing whilst Simon nodded with a light smile. Kadaj watched the girls link arms and walk off, leaving Lloyd to glare at them until they had vanished beyond the glass and metal double doors.

"Where are you going?" Kadaj found himself asking only a moment later. The moment the door had swung shut, Lloyd had hopped off the grass and jogged towards them, standing out of sight as he leant forward to look through the glass.

"Whoa!" He stumbled back in surprise, before Claudia pushed the door open and frowned at him, her hand on her hip as her shoulder held the door open.

"I am so disappointed Lloyd. I thought you were good at sneaking around!"  
"Damn! I thought you'd gone in!"

"I'm not that stupid. I've known you for too long to fall for this one. Now go and sit with Si and Kadaj—whoa!" she exclaimed suddenly, a hand grabbing her arm before yanking her though the door.

"Stop talking to your lover boy—"  
"Sophie! He's not my 'lover boy'!"  
"Well that's definitely the impression that I get…"  
Their voices faded to silence as the door closed, leaving Lloyd with a blank look as he stared at his reflection in the glass.

"Don't worry Lloyd, the two of you can snuggle later," Simon said loudly with a sly smile, bringing a glare upon himself.

"Shut up Simon." He stormed back towards them, and sat beside his bag once again.

"I think you'd make a really cute couple."

"Why does everyone keep saying that? We're friends!"

"What do you think Kadaj?" When his name was dragged into the conversation, he looked from one to another in momentary silence. He didn't care, but he knew that if he agreed with Simon that Lloyd would be in a worse mood than he was already in. Having two spiky haired swordsmen after him did not sound like fun, so he shrugged and looked back at his phone in his hands.

"They're friends," he mumbled, pressing in a message for Cloud.

If he wanted his bike, he realised he'd need his bike keys, which were hidden away somewhere by the blond man himself when he had taken Souba from him, forcing him to ask. He hated having to go so low as to beg, but first he needed an excuse to beg with.

Looking up when someone sat beside him, he was a little confused to see the black haired teenager looking at the screen of his phone.

"Who are you texting?" he asked curiously, as if his previous bad mood had never existed.

"Uh…"

"Wait, you have a bike?" he exclaimed in amazement, leaving Kadaj to nod awkwardly. What was so special about having a bike? "Funky! I have a chocobo, but that's about it. I have to save up my own money if I want one. You're so lucky!" Glancing back at Simon, Kadaj felt that he was back in Lloyd's good books by the amused smile on the silver and black haired teen's face. One comment had saved what little reputation he had gathered for himself over the past day and a half with this small group.

* * *

R&R


	11. Change

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

11. Change

He disliked the idea of handing Souba to a stranger for 'safe keeping'. No, dislike wasn't the word for it. He hated passing any of his possessions to anyone against his will, which was why he and Cloud had such an argument his first night in the Seventh Heaven. Somehow he had been 'convinced' into handing his three most important possessions to Cloud, but only after breaking a chair in anger and being threatened to be locked in a room until he was a little more co-operative. This situation was no different.

"I'm glad you recovered the weapon from the train before anyone else did, though I hope the next time you're asked to bring something in you bring it on time," said Mr Tribal, standing behind the teacher's desk in room Thirteen. Walking into the room, Kadaj walked straight past the man and headed for a desk, ignoring him and the rest of the class as they stared at him. Mr Tribal sighed. "Kadaj, bring it here." He dropped his bag onto a desk next to Lloyd, placing Souba a little more carefully beside it, before sitting down.

"You'll get it at the end of the lesson," he replied arrogantly with a smirk, but the teacher paid no heed to him as he walked to their desk and wrapped a hand around the end of the hilt. Quicker than lightning, Kadaj's hand was on the hilt as he glared up at Mr Tribal.

"Let go Kadaj. You were told to hand it in this morning." His grip remained firm, until he remembered what Cloud had been trying to make him do for the past week. With a glare, he released Souba. "Thank you. It'll be in the gym if you need it, though you won't get it back unless you have permission from home." Placing it on the desk at the front, he soon turned back tot he class. "Everyone here? Then take out your books--" Kadaj raised his hand with an impatient sigh, and he could tell that Mr Tribal felt exactly the same. "Yes?"  
"I haven't got a book."

After receiving a new, maroon coloured book, Kadaj was forced to begin writing. It wasn't as bad as Ancient Stones, since Mr Tribal seemed to like to talk a lot during the times they were told to listen, but he still seemed to be writing a lot. Beside him, Lloyd was watching his pen move awkwardly across the paper, and soon resorted to occasionally prodding Kadaj's arm, much to his agitation.

"If you don't stop, I'll do to you what I did to Denzel," he eventually threatened, making his black haired acquaintance smile in a sly fashion.

"What did you do to Denzel?" he asked, prodding him again. Without warning, Kadaj raised his hand and rammed the pen down into Lloyd's sore wrist, making him pull his arm back sharply as he jumped in his seat. "Ah, you wanker!" The class fell silent before bursting into laughter, but the teacher did not look as amused as he looked at Lloyd with a bored expression.

"Lloyd, what have I said about using such language?"

"'It is inappropriate and rude to use _such language _in class'," the teenager replied with a heavy sigh, before glaring daggers at Mr Tribal when he turned his back. When he saw the humoured smile on Kadaj's face, he glared at him instead.

"I'll get you later."

"So how was the lesson Lloyd?" asked Claudia, walking towards her friend as he and Kadaj walked to the train platform. He pouted as he held his injured wrist up weakly.

"The first ten minutes were alright, but then ten minutes after that he stabbed me!"

"And ten minutes after that something else probably happened, and for ten minutes after that you all had to sit in silence. Why does everything have a ten minute gap with you?" she asked impatiently as she stepped on the train.

"Because I don't pay attention to time! I thought you knew that by now!"

"Well I bet you deserved it. What was he doing?" she asked as she turned to Kadaj, who had stepped into the compartment behind her.

"He kept poking me."  
"Then he definitely deserved it. He should know better than to do that by now!"

"Yeah, but I didn't expect him to stab my wrist…"

As he pressed in a message, the conversation beside him continued. He wasn't one for listening so he missed most of it, until Lloyd raised his vice slightly to argue with Claudia.

"I already told you, I didn't mean to drop them!" Sending the message, he resisted the urge to break Lloyd's other wrist. But there had to be a way to calm him down without annoying him and making him worse.

"By the way, when we get to the platform I advise you to cover your ears. My sister is… well, let's just say she's loud," Claudia said suddenly, leaning forward to look past Lloyd. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Kadaj looked back at her.

"Oh really?"

"Just wait until you meet her. You'll understand what she means," Lloyd added with a slight glare towards the chair in front of him, pouting like a child after a tantrum. Noticing the wire hanging from Claudia's ear, Kadaj remembered what he had received that morning and had been distracted from twice already that day. Pulling it from his bag again, he unwrapped the wire from around the MP3 player and pushed the power button. Maybe the earphones would help keep his ears covered.

"Good afternoon monsters!" Alas, the music at a low level didn't stop the loud greeting from a… vibrant young woman stood on the platform, shoulder length, golden brown hair tied into bouncing pigtails as a hand waved happily. If a little over enthusiastic at that point as well…

"Hug me brother!" Jumping from the train after Lloyd, Claudia rushed to her and leapt on her, almost knocking her to the ground as she yelped slightly in surprise.

"Ow…" the lady mumbled once she was released, making Claudia grin as she laughed.

"Banzai!" Lloyd suddenly yelled, before jumping on Claudia before she had a chance to brace herself. Both landed on the ground, forcing people to walk around them to avoid them as the other woman laughed loudly.

"Lloyd, you way a frickin' tonne!"

Turning to Kadaj, the young woman held out a hand to shake.

"Hi, I'm Tabitha! I'm Claudia's sister," she said with a bubbly voice. Staring at her hand for a moment in silence, he soon took.

"This is Kadaj," Lloyd told her form the floor as the brunette stood up again, brushing herself off in a disgruntled fashion. With a broad smile Tabitha nodded, shaking his hand lightly before letting go.

"Come on, I said we'd be there by four," she told them as Lloyd stood up as well, before looking at Kadaj once again. "Are you coming with us, or do you have to head home?" she asked curiously. Lifting his phone when it went off again, he opened it and read what was on the screen.

"…My brother wants me back."  
"Oh, okay then. I'll see you some other time!"

"You're leaving me alone with them? What kind of monster are you?!"

Watching Lloyd being dragged away by the two females, Kadaj soon turned the other way and headed across the platform. It was almost bare already so getting to the street was easy, and he was soon heading back to the Seventh Heaven. Cloud, for some reason, wanted him back at the bar as soon as possible, but he hadn't mentioned why and only made Kadaj suspicious. What could he possibly want…? A light smile came to his features when he realised what he was listening to, and could easily remember Lloyd, Daisy and Claudia making fools of themselves to it in the café the day before.

Slowing down to a stop when the Seventh Heaven was in sight, he stared at the truck parked outside with a dubious gaze. Did it have something to do with what Cloud wanted, or was someone using their parking space for no good reason? With slow steps he continued to the door, feeling like someone was bound to jump out at him from behind a corner. If someone was stupid enough to do that, at least.

Abandoning his shoes amongst Denzel and Marlene's just inside the door, he tensed instinctively when he saw the group gathered in the main room. Looking for Cloud, he narrowed his eyes when the blond stepped forward.

"What's going on?" was Kadaj's first obvious question.

"Rufus Shinra and the Turks are looking for you. They heard from some people that you were still alive, and called here earlier to ask if we'd seen you," the man explained, before gesturing to the group gathered around him. "We don't know what they want you for, but for now we're going to have to keep an eye on you."

"What?" Kadaj was outraged by this proposal, his voice easily portraying his anger at being treated like a prisoner, even if Shinra was after him.

"You'll still be going to school, but one of us will always be around, just in case," Tifa told him, stepping up beside Cloud in his defence. "You may be strong, but with four Turks and Shinra himself after you, it's better to stay on the safe side."

"Won't this just make everything look even more suspicious? With one of you constantly walking around certain areas like the school right after you've been asked about me?" he snapped sharply, crossing his arms in agitation.

"We know what we're doing. We've done something similar before," Cloud replied with a look of seriousness on his features, which didn't strike Kadaj at all as he never seemed to have any other look on his face.

"What about tomorrow?" Being continually watched was not good, especially since he'd been invited around to someone else's house for the night. Something was bound to look out of place, no matter how much they'd planned it all out.

"We'll be around, but we won't interfere unless we have to. Just be careful in public areas," said Cloud, before looking at the clock on the wall. "If you're fast enough, you should be able to catch up with Morgan's brother."

"I have homework…"

Casting a dark look across the room he walked past them, heading swiftly up the stairs to his room where he knew he wouldn't be disturbed unless it was necessary. He didn't have any homework, but he'd rather be alone in his room than go to another clothes shop, 'friends' or otherwise. His last experience would last him a lifetime, and he didn't feel like repeating it anytime soon. Throwing his bag to the floor against his bed post, he didn't realise how hard he'd flung it until he noticed one of the floorboards rattle slightly where it lay. Paying no attention to it he lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling, unsure of what to do now he was up here. He didn't have anything to do even if he wanted to, the room only housing what he needed, the mattress on the bed frame being one of the only luxuries he had.

When the ceiling lost its lustre he sat up. There had to be something to do, even if it meant leaving the haven of his room to find it. Unfortunately that also meant mingling with the others of the building, which he would rather avoid doing during these early days. But alas, he needed something to interest him before he started tearing down the walls. Glancing down at his bag, he surprised himself as another idea for the blank cream walls came to mind instead, making him smile at the cleverness of himself as he reached for the black strap.

"What are you doing up here Kadaj? I've been calling for ten minutes!" Walking up the corridor to the walking massacre's room, Tifa was not a happy bunny. Everyone else was already down by the dinner table, happily eating, whilst her own plate was going cold with Kadaj's as no one else would go up and fetch him. If he wasn't in his room, the consequences of her actions would not be entirely her own fault. It would be the fourth time he'd attempted to escape the Seventh Heaven, and the third window lock he would've broken.

"Kadaj, are you in—" Pushing the door open and peering inside, the brunette stopped in her tracks as she stared at the formerly blank wall to the left of the door, where Kadaj was currently stood. Pencil in hand, he didn't seem to notice her as she watched him, her mouth agape in shock.

"What do you want?" he asked suddenly, even though the white wires of the MP3 player in his pocket hung from beneath his hair.

"Dinner… uh, ready… cold…" she mumbled, before looking at him properly "What have you been doing?" she finally managed to ask. Looking over at her, he smirked at the bemused look on her face before turning back to the wall.

"Drawing, obviously."

* * *

R&R


	12. Frame

I have a lot of explaining to do, so I'll make it as brief as I can. I've changed a few things, and I've actually corrected mistakes that I hadn't picked up on the first time around (which I am very ashamed of. I'm very sorry about it too.) so I hope it isn't too confusing. And the reason I haven't updated for a while is because my exams were just on (and I just received a copy of the Wii version of Twilight Princess from my brother after almost finishing it on the Gamecube version). But now I have loads of free time, and I shouldn't be too distracted by my own fiction to not write this one. Oh, chapter 13 is now a part of chapter twelve, because that was so shamefully short. And this will be copy and pasted into every chapter up until 12 so that people will definitely read it.

xo Delta

* * *

12. Frame

"Hey Cloud…" After taking Kadaj's plate up to his room, Tifa was sat alone at the table with her old companion after the others had left, what was left of her meal still on her plate and ready to be eaten.

"Yes?" he replied, standing up with his own dish and taking it through to the kitchen. Playing a little with a pea, she thought hard about what she wanted to say, seeing as it never really came up often in everyday conversation.

"Do you… And this is just a theory, now, but do you think… Kadaj remembers anything?" There was silence for a brief moment, and Cloud returned to his seat with a solemn face.

"…What? Of Sephiroth?"

With a light nod of her head, she put her fork down again and brought her hands together, resting her elbows on the table.

"Of his life before last week. Of the whole incident with SOLDIER and Meteor."

"Why are you asking?" he replied, his expression turning serious as she spoke. She couldn't be mentioning things like this merely as an afterthought.

"Think back to when we were in the Temple of the Ancients, and the mural," she said, bringing her gaze to his.

"Where we met Sephiroth… the long room with the puzzle, right?" he asked, a little unsure. He could remember the room, but it was hazy and there were occasional blanks. She nodded again. "What about it?"

"The image of Meteor, the whole panel it was on, is now on the wall of his room in pencil."

His shock was expressed by his eyes as they widened, his stare now unnerving her slightly as he remained silent. But a moment later he was on his feet and heading out towards the stairs, Tifa hot on his heels the instant he had moved.

"Cloud—Wait!" At the top of the stairs, she managed to catch his arm and pull him to a halt. "Where are you going?"  
"I'm just going to see this for myself," he told her, looking back at her and making her sigh.

"Well… alright. But remember, you owe him money."

"I know, I know. I didn't think he'd last this long though…"

Knocking lightly on the door, Cloud waited for what littler reply Kadaj ever made before he entered. The last time he'd walked in unannounced, he'd almost lost his head since Souba was still on the premises.

"What?" came the sharp reply, and Cloud forced back a sigh before stepping inside.

"I just want to talk to you," replied the blond, looking around the room when he didn't find him on his bed like he usually was. "Where…? Oh." Turning his head around the door he found the young remnant sat cross legged on his desk, his plate in one hand whilst his fork was in the other, and what few items that had been on the table top before were now scattered on the floor . He gave Cloud a dark look.

"About what?"  
"About school."

Closing the door behind him, he leant against it as Kadaj finished his dinner.

"I've done what you told me to do," he told him, and Cloud nodded as he glanced around the room again. Where was the chair?

"I know. That's what I've come to talk to you about," he replied, reaching into his pocket. Watching him curiously, Kadaj held his fork in his teeth as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Three notes were held out to him.

"Ten for going yesterday, ten for today, and ten for tomorrow in case you decide to go straight to your friend's house," he explained, and Kadaj stared at him blankly for a moment. He was giving him… money? He knew he said that he'd give him some, but he thought he'd give him less…

Taking it from him before he had the chance to change his mind, he put down his plate to check all three. Well, they were definitely real, with a large ten printed on them all.

"Why are you giving me this?" he asked, still in a state of mild shock.

"Because I said that I would for every day you managed to get through without Tifa getting a call from the headmaster," Cloud replied, still looking for the chair as he went to the formerly blank wall. But he gave up as he examined the pencil sketches.

"How did you draw this?" he asked. It was very similar to what he could remember, but the style was different as far as some shapes and figures went. But the story was still the same.

"With a pencil," came the sarcastic as the teenager stuffed the money into his pocket, and Cloud rolled his eyes impatiently.

"Where did you see it?" he asked instead, hoping to get a slightly better answer. But Kadaj merely shrugged.  
"I don't know. Why?"

"No reason. I was just wondering… It's very detailed. Well done."

"I don't think he remembers anything." Sitting back at the table twenty minutes later, Cloud watched as Tifa made herself a cup of coffee. Giving him a worried frown, she rested her hands on her hips.

"Are you sure?" she asked in a small voice, and he nodded.

"I spoke with him for a little. He didn't recognise any of the times that I knew Sephiroth had experienced, and I don't really see why he would lie about it," he explained, looking at the empty plate in front of him. He'd also been 'convinced' to bring down the young remnant's plate.

"Well… as long as you're sure," she replied, and watched him nod reassuringly. The last thing she wanted was another Sephiroth running around knowing about their previous encounters and the destruction of Nibleheim, especially since he was currently living at her bar.

Sitting on his bed again, he was staring at the ceiling as he leant against the wooden frame at the foot of the mattress. He'd lost any and all inspiration that he had during his first big drawing, and it didn't seem to be coming back anytime soon, which made him sigh. Now what was he supposed to do? He found himself constantly skipping through some of the songs on the small MP3 player, and by now he was beginning to learn some of the words, but the ones he didn't know didn't get a chance to play as he moved on to the next in impatience. Eventually he leant over the side of the bed to pick up his bag, but when he moved it he saw the loose floorboard rattle again. Curious enough to get up, he knelt on the floor and tried to push his fingers underneath, but had to take a broken pencil from his bag instead to pry it out of place.

It took him a minute or so to get the pencil wedged, but once he did it was easy to lift the board up and out of the way. Looking inside, he found it was a shallow hole between some of the pipes and insulation, but there was enough room to hide a few things if he needed to. And with people like Denzel sneaking around and stealing chairs, he was more than happy to have it.

"Kadaj?" He jumped when there was another knock at the door, and quickly shoved the plank back into place before sitting on it and leaning back against the bed post to hide it.

"What do you want?" he asked darkly as Marlene opened the door. She pouted at him, her hand still resting on the door knob.

"I just wanted to get something. Tifa said it was in the second drawer over there."

Turning his head when she gestured across the room to the chest of drawers, he sighed impatiently.

"Fine. Get it then get out," he growled, and she nodded quickly before rushing past him and pulling the drawer open, s small square of card or something in her hand. He only managed to catch a glimpse of the image on the other side. Taking a minute to look through the things that were there, there were many fragile sounds before she pulled something into sight.

"Found it!" she said happily, before skipping merrily back to the door.

Looking at the photo frame in her hand, he could only assume that the card was a photograph, but he couldn't care less as the door clicked shut behind her. Hopefully no one else would be calling in for the rest of the evening.

-xXx-

"If you ever leave me alone with them again, I may have to hurt you." Taken by surprise as he stepped on the train, Kadaj was tugged quickly into a seat beside Lloyd before he could even look around the compartment. Giving his acquaintance a puzzled look, he remained silent. "Tabitha made me stand on a little stool for almost an hour! And I swear the guy with the tape measure was gay…"

"Why didn't you leave?" asked the silver haired teen. Lloyd gave him an inquisitive look.

"What are you: crazy? I'd have two banshees on my tail!" he exclaimed, before sighing as he slouched in his seat. "Besides, my parents were the ones who organised it. They asked Tabitha to take me so that I would at least get it done."

Noticing the silence around them, Kadaj finally noticed that there were only two of them on the seat.

"Where's Claudia?" he asked, looking around the compartment as well, just in case he missed her on the way in.

"She has a session this morning. She won't be in until lunchtime," the reply was grumbled with a pout. "We have P.E…" Kadaj had Ancient Stones and Creatures first, but if he was forced to sit through another forty minutes _learning_ something he already knew, he would have to find some other way to vent his frustration.

"You go quiet way to easily," Lloyd said suddenly, waving a hand in front of his face. "If you think too much, you may hurt yourself." Narrowing his eyes as an amused smile remained on the other teen's features, Kadaj was quickly thinking of a way to 'vent his frustration'.

Registration passed in a blur, and assembly was cancelled since the headmaster was late; it was a relief because it was another warm day and the hall would surely be bathed in a pool of heat. Walking with Simon and Daisy to Ancient Stones, he sorely wished that he was still in bed, and was envious of the nerdy brunette still at home at that very moment.

"She'll be happy this afternoon too. She only has Tech," said the lighter of the two brunettes, making Kadaj growl. This wasn't making his day any better.

"Mr Strife, what have you done to your book?" Flinching slightly when a screech pierced the inner sanctum of his mind, Kadaj turned his narrowed eyes up to the annoying old woman standing over him. As always they were sat on the second desk back from the front, but it didn't stop the hawk eyes of Mrs Stalinski seeing the cover of his previously dark green book. She did not look amused as she snatched it from his grasp before it even touched the table.

"This is completely unacceptable! You've been here for two days, and you've already defiled one of your school books!" she ranted, making him sigh.

"That's the only one, since you're lessons seem longer than the coming of the apocalypse," he replied. The whole class fell into silence, stunned at what the newest pupil had just told the oldest, most cruel teacher in the school, and stared at her as her mouth hung agape. Even he could see the anger sweeping in red across her face, her eyes bulging as she breathed heavily trough flared nostrils.

"How dare you answer back in such a way!"

"Quite easily, actually. Your lessons are dull, your classroom is stuffy, your voice could easily make children cry, and your handwriting is just as bad as mine."

Sitting outside the headmaster's office wasn't as good as it had first seemed. Sure, he was out of the classroom of the hag, but now he had to deal with the cackling witches in the hollow that was their office. On frequent occasions he caught the curly haired one sneering almost mockingly at him, leaving him to glare back. There was no way he would let her get the last glare.

This ridiculous behaviour lasted for the next ten minutes, before Kadaj was distracted by a tall and dark figure stepping into reception through the glass front doors.

"What are you doing here?" he spat, giving Cloud a distasteful look, like he was covered in some kind of green ooze. The blonde did not look happy, but then again he never did in Kadaj's presence, and said nothing as the receptionist announced them to the headmaster. He merely stood there, looking mightily peeved as they waited for something to happen, but it wasn't long before the door beside the main desk opened. The rounded and balding head of the headmaster appeared around it, and gave Cloud a grave look.

"This way please, Mr Strife," he said, sounding just as amused as the blonde looked as he opened the door to let them in. Following Cloud, Kadaj knew this wouldn't end well.

He was a little confused when he entered the office, since at first glance it looked like a living room crossed with a doctor's waiting room. There was a low table with a couch on either side, and the walls were covered with images of previous headmasters, school photos, newspaper articles and school pupils holding certificates or awards. There was even one of the building when it had first opened, though the main focus was on a different man that also had a photo amongst the previous headmasters. The wall itself was a bland cream colour like the walls of the actual office, cobwebs beginning to form in the top right corner between the two windows, where the glass appeared to have been replaced frequently. Underfoot the carpet was an ugly mouldy green with a simple red dot pattern, making the floor look like it had very tidy acne. In front of the window opposite them was a desk, covered with papers, folders and envelopes all neatly arranged into piles, and a small desk tidy brimming with pens and odd stationary items.

Gesturing to one of the ugly, stone grey couches, the headmaster took a seat on the opposite side, and as Cloud sat down Kadaj caught a glance of a brass name plate on the desk. 'Mr Edwin Piloksen'… Well, he was aptly named for the job, that was for sure. Remaining on his feet, the young remnant began to wonder a little around the room whilst the two adults watched him before Mr Piloksen cleared his throat to get his attention.

"Have a seat, Kadaj," he said in a calm, sedate voice, but when Kadaj merely looked away again he started slowly grinding his teeth in agitation. "Please, Mr Strife. This discussion is about you."

"Have it 'about me' without me," he replied sharply, going to the desk and looking at the desk tidy. There was a shiny silver pen with a golden clasp down the side, which he picked up to examine better.

"Kadaj, sit." He sighed irritably when he heard Cloud's monotone, and strode back to the couch and sat ungracefully by the armrest, the pen still in hand as he put his feet up against the edge of the table.

Seeing the headmaster's eyebrow twitch at this gesture he merely smirked, and pulled the lid from the pen. It was a fountain pen with a golden tip, and 'Dizzy' had been carved delicately on the wider area closer to the main barrel. Why would the headmaster have a pen with 'Dizzy' on it…?

"Put your feet on the floor and listen," Cloud growled, flicking Kadaj's knee to get the message through to him. Reluctantly, the teen complied.

"I assume you both know why you're here," said Piloksen, and Cloud nodded whilst Kadaj merely stared at the middle-aged man over the pen as he held it up between his two index fingers. "Mrs Stalinski is very upset at Kadaj's outburst. It isn't the first, but it had come to my attention since this is Kadaj's third day here."

"Stop talking like I'm not here," said the remnant, still staring at the headmaster as he held the pen. Something seemed to disturb the aged man slightly as he kept glancing away as he tried to hold Kadaj's gaze.

"What I suggest is that Kadaj learns to—"

"I'm still here."  
"—Is that _you_ learn to control your attitude. If I hear of any more disturbances in class, I will take action, understand?"

"Well it would help if that woman could teach—"

"Don't speak ill of my staff, young man!" Piloksen cut across, but Kadaj merely continued.

"—Otherwise I wouldn't give her a reason to yell at me, which brings me to make a few criticisms about her teaching methods," he finished, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees as he leant forward. The headmaster sighed, drumming his fingers together impatiently.

"If you aren't enjoying the class, you can drop it or do another subject—"

"I want to do Art."

Both Cloud and Piloksen stared blankly at his sudden exclamation, but he merely ignored them as he pulled the cap off the silver pen again.

"Art? Are you sure, Kadaj?" the blonde asked, and the teen nodded.

"It's either here or back on the walls of the bar," he replied, before looking at the headmaster again. "I want to do Art instead of Ancient Stones."

"Alright, I'll have your new timetable written, though it would probably be best to speak with the deputy head about that," the man replied, but Kadaj didn't care as he stood up from his seat. No more Ancient Stones and Creatures. No more stuffy classroom smelling of paint and feet. No more having to write long, pointless essays. No more screeching old hag… It was the end of a short, but somehow still painfully long era, and the two lessons he had spent there were the only ones he would ever have to waste there. Without another word Kadaj left the room as the bell rang for break, the pen still in hand as he left Cloud with Mr Pillock… sen.

Walking up the main corridor to head back to Mrs Stalinski's classroom, he was dreading the thought of having to go back and risk his ears just to fetch his bag. It may only be a brief visit, but it would be a visit all the same.

"Hey Kadaj!" Looking up the corridor behind him he saw Lloyd heading towards the hall from the first corridor, and followed him as he gestured towards one of the doors.

"I have to go and get my bag," he told the dark haired boy, who merely ignored him as he lead the way inside. Pushing the doors open as they swung shut behind Lloyd, Kadaj followed him in and looked around as he entered.

It was spacious and empty when it wasn't assembly, the stage at the front mostly hidden by thick dark green curtains as the headmaster's podium stood in the centre. Two sets of wooden steps lead up on either side, one with a banister that lead directly onto the stage whilst the other was set sideways with a square platform at the top. A grand piano was in the corner to the left, stage right, by one of the three sets of double doors that lead into the hall, whilst a smaller stand-up piano resided on the opposite side. The four windows were tall and wide, five panes up and two across, with the same dark green curtains fluttering on either side as the bottom windows let a breeze dance in. At the back there were chairs and small square tables all stacked neatly into the corners, taking up one fifth of the area whilst the floor was littered with wires. A pair of double doors were in the middle of the back wall as well, and he could just see out into the main reception through the small round port hole-like window near the top.

Small groups of sixth formers were already gathered around a few of the large radiators along the walls, working on tables they had taken from the back. Two familiar figures were sat at two such tables pushed together, leaning over their work as they wrote in dark green books, and didn't seem to notice them as they entered. Lloyd snuck up behind Simon and poked him in the sides, making him jump in his seat before turning around to see his cackling friend.

"Lloyd, you jackass!" he exclaimed, picking up his book and smacking him across the arm with it, whilst Daisy looked up from her work at Kadaj.

"What did the headmaster say to you?" the brunette asked curiously, tucking her pen behind her ear.

"Not to answer back to teachers. So I switched to Art instead, because I hate that woman," he replied, watching as Lloyd brought a chair from the back, and took it from him before sitting down.

"Hey!" the scarlet eyed teen pouted, but Kadaj ignored him and forced him to fetch another seat from the back.

"You're quitting Ancient Stones? Smart move," Simon commented, sighing as he rested his head against the desk.

"She was really annoyed after you left, and yelled at Martin twice because his seat creaked when he moved," said Daisy, before lifting a familiar bag over the desk and handing it to Kadaj. "Here's your bag."

"You spoke back to Stalin? Are you crazy or something?" Pulling another chair up beside Kadaj, Lloyd sat so he was leaning against the back, before wincing as he brought his hand to the inner leg seam of his jeans. "Damn, shouldn't do that so quickly…"

"'Stalin'?" Kadaj asked, lost. Daisy rolled her eyes as Lloyd nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, the Ancient Stones teacher. People call her Stalin 'cause it's a lot easier. Plus she's a total bitch to anyone who lives in Edge," he sighed, before holding up his hand as he counted along his fingers. "There's Stalin, Pilok, Mr Bater—"

"'Mr Bater'?"

"That one's kind of obvious. Just put 'Master' at the front."

"Oh…" He didn't quite understand, but he knew it had something to do with Lloyd's sense of humor.

"Then there's Shakey Jake, The Robin—"

"Lloyd, shut up about teacher's nicknames! I'm trying to concentrate!" Daisy seethed, making him pout again as she glared at him.

"You're just mean."

Remaining at the table as Simon and Daisy went to History, Kadaj was left with Lloyd and a pack of playing cards. He wasn't sure what they were supposed to do with them since he only knew Solitaire, which was what Lloyd started playing as he hummed quietly under his breath. Watching intently he followed every move the dark haired boy made, giving the slightest shake of his head when he saw a wasted chance or a mistake. When Lloyd stopped he looked up to see what had distracted him, and found him staring back with a confused expression.

"What?" the remnant replied, feeling uneasy.

"You keep doing that!"

"What?" he asked again, beginning to get defensive. Why did everyone comment on his behaviour? As far as he could tell, he wasn't doing anything wrong. His acquaintance shook his head lightly.

"Don't worry about it."  
"But—"

"This is where you're hiding!" Both turned their heads when they heard Sophie's voice, and watched as she and a girl with shoulder length, chestnut hair pulled up a seat each. Kadaj had never seen this person before, and compared to the others he had met she already seemed much quieter. Pushing a pair of brown, square framed glasses a little further up her nose as they slipped, she smiled at Lloyd politely.

"Good morning Lloyd!" she said, before looking at Kadaj. There was a short pause, before she smiled again in realisation. "You're in my reg class!"

"Uh, Kath, I'm in your reg class," said the scarlet eyed teen, and she nodded pathetically as she frowned.  
"I know that, but he's new!" she replied. Lloyd merely rolled his eyes with a humoured smile as he gathered the cards back together, before Sophie stole them from his grasp.

"Let's play snap!" she exclaimed cheerfully, holding the cards from Lloyd's reach as she shuffled them, but the young man groaned agitatedly.

"No, we played that most of yesterday!"  
"We didn't play cards yesterday."  
"Oh, okay… Well, most of the week so far then—"

"We haven't played cards at all."  
"Let's play Cheat!" the Kath girl said, taking the deck from Sophie and beginning to share them out amongst the four of them. Glancing around the small group, Kadaj looked back at his dark haired acquaintance with a rather puzzled look. He knew what cheating was, but how was it made solely into a card game? It obviously had something to do with cheating, but in what way…?

Upon seeing his face, Lloyd held up his hands to stop the brunette in her eager disposal of cards into four piles.

"Whoa! Wait! I don't think Kadaj knows how to play!" he said, and both girls looked at the youngest remnant in curiosity.

"Really?" asked Sophie, incredulous at the thought. Kath merely continued to deal the cards out with a light smile.

"You should have said something. Right, the main objective of the game is to get rid of all your cards in numerical order. Basically, if it starts on an Ace, the next person can put down up to four Kings, three Aces, or four twos. If you have only two Twos or something, you can put both down, but if you can't put anything down then you have to try and cheat. If you keep count of how many cards have been played, cheating is a lot easier, and so is catching other people," she explained, before picking up her small pile like the others. "You'll pick it up a lot easier as we play."

An Ace, two Twos, two Fives, a Six, four Sevens, a Nine, and two Kings. Lucky sevens had to mean something about how this would turn out… Sophie, who was sat to the left of Kath, pulled three cards from her hand.

"Three Fours." Placing them on the table in the middle of them all, she arranged a few of her cards a little more tidily before looking at Kadaj. "A Three, a Four, or a Five." Looking through his disorderly cards, he pulled out one of his Twos and a King.

"Two Fives," he placed them on top of her three 'Fours', and no one seemed to suspect him as Lloyd looked through his own cards. After much contemplation, he pulled out a card.

"A Six."

"Another Six," said Kath, taking a card and putting it down on Lloyd's.

Sophie didn't seem to spare a second putting a card of her own down.

"One Six."

"One Six."  
"One Five."  
"A Four."  
"Three."  
"Two."  
"Three Threes."  
"A Two."  
"Another Two."  
"Cheat!" Lloyd exclaimed suddenly, before reaching forward and flipping over the top card. With a smug smirk, he held the Eight up to Sophie as she glared back, looking as if she would kick him at any given minute. With a disgruntled 'humph' she took the pile, and as she gathered them all into her hand Kath nudged Kadaj.

"It's your turn first."

Looking through his cards, he picked out his Ace, one of his Fives, and a King before placing them on the desk.

"Three Sevens." As Sophie continued to arrange her cards with a whine of 'hold on a minute!', Lloyd and Kath cast each other a glance before the scarlet eyes dropped to his hand.

"An Eight," he said, taking it out and placing it on the desk with the others, before Kath put down three of her own. Sophie, who finally managed to get her cards all into one hand, pulled out a single card.

"Eight."  
"Cheat!" said Kath, but the brunette beside her was grinning as she turned the card over to reveal the Eight of Diamonds.

"I have most of the pack. Why would I cheat?" Taking the small deck of five into her hand, Kath feigned shock as she looked at what both boys had put down.

"You both cheated!"

Now down to his last six cards, Kadaj assumed he was good at the game as the brunette in glasses beside him put down two Tens. No one had called his bluff yet, which was good as he pulled out his remaining five.

"A Nine."  
"Two Tens."  
"Nine."  
"Two Nines." Kath had all the Eights, and four Tens had already been played. Would they speak up if he put down another nine? Pulling it out, he placed it on the growing pile.

"A Nine." All three gave him a long, hard look, as if trying to see if they could make him break by staring him down. No one said a word, but as Lloyd finally reached for his next card Sophie stopped him.

"Wait! He's probably doing what Madison does!"

"Call it then!"  
"Are you serious? I still have most of the cards!" she screeched, making Lloyd sigh heavily as he rolled his eyes.

"Two Tens."  
"A Jack—Wait, you cheated!" exclaimed Kath, but she'd placed her card already as Lloyd smiled like a fool.

"Too late, the card is down. And now I can say it right back!" he said triumphantly, turning the top card over to reveal a Queen. Pouting, she picked up the deck and added them to her hand as Lloyd laughed. "I love it when you're all distracted!"

After smacking Lloyd's arm lightly to silence his cackling, Sophie pulled four cards from her hand.

"Four Sixes," she announced, before looking at Kadaj with a smile that could only mean that she strongly assumed he would be forced to cheat. Gathering his last four cards together into one, he placed them on top with a proud smile.

"Four Sevens."  
"Cheat! He has to be! He can't win!" said Lloyd, reaching forward and lifting the top four cards. Staring blankly at them for a second, he soon gave the remnant an incredulous half-smile. "You jammy git!"

As they started a new game, Kadaj took his chance to go and speak with the deputy head about switching lessons. They had another Ancient Stones lesson scheduled that afternoon, and the last thing he wanted was to go back inside. There was only so much he could take of the foot odour that hung humidly in there: any more and he would surely gag. Heading to the room at the top of the corridor that Sophie had guided him towards, he pushed the door open to see whether it was empty of not.

"Good morning. What can I help you with?" The voice that greeted him from beyond the desk was impatient-sounding, but somehow seemed as if the woman had given up on trying to greet people in a happy demeanour. Stepping into the room he walked up to the desk, and met the bored gaze of the tall, scrawny figure of apparent authority. With her hands folded together on the table top in front of her, she stared him down.

"Miss Washington, I want—"

"To switch from Ancient Stones to Art. I know. Mr Piloksen told me after your… 'discussion' this morning." The silver haired teen smirked at her pause. "I've arranged a new timetable for you, and please: be a little more polite to Mr Pickwick." Pulling a sheet of paper from the printer by her computer she handed it to him, before folding her hands together on the desk again. "If you have any more problems, come speak to Mr Smith or myself," she told him, and he gave the slightest nod in reply before leaving. What an odd woman…

* * *

R&R


	13. Photo

_**Sorry it's taken so long to upload this one (not like anyone actually reads this...) but things have happened in real life that needed to be dealt with. I'm not going to explain 'cause that's just stupid and you don't want to know. Just read on.**__**

* * *

**_

13. Photo

Before he knew it, PE was over and the bell for lunch was ringing. He had been alone again in the lesson since Lloyd still complained about his busted wrist, and was sat on one of the benches to the side like last time. Daisy and Simon met them outside, and they were on their way back to Edge within seconds of the lunch hour beginning.

"Where're we meeting Claudia?" asked the brunette, sitting so squashed up against Simon that she was practically in his lap. Lloyd pulled out his phone.

"Dunno. I'll call her now."

The compartment was full compared to the day before, but he assumed it was because everyone else wanted to go to the city as well. At least the rubble had been cleared up since the attack by Bahamut SIN, but what confused him was that no one in school had mentioned it, especially since he's kidnapped about twenty of the kids. They weren't in his year, but surely they were around the same age as Denzel, so they had to be somewhere. He hadn't really been the most social of beings during his first few days, but he didn't want to be, what with so many small people around. It was the reason he never ventured too close before.

"Where should we go for lunch today?" asked Simon, whilst Lloyd brought his phone to his ear.

"The shopping district's still closed isn't it?" replied Daisy, before looking at Kadaj. "Do you know where we could go for food?"

"No."

"Damn. Well, we may as well go to a shop or something. I have to be back by one for a piano lesson."

"Claudia…? We're on the train…" Lloyd had finally received an answer on his phone, but had to stick a finger in his other ear to be able to hear who he was speaking to.

"Maybe we could go to the bakery?" Simon suggested. For a moment, Daisy looked sceptical, but soon nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, I could bring a sandwich back with me! Thanks Si!" Wrapping her arms around his neck she was fully on his lap instead, and Simon looked a little afraid of her sudden energy spike.

"Uh, no problem. I only suggested… Never mind."

"You're still in bed?" All three turned to Lloyd when he made his exclamation, and the volume of the pupils around them fell so much that he no longer needed to cover his ear. "What do you mean 'you're still in bed'? It's half twelve!"

"Lloyd, keep your voice down—" Daisy started, but the young teen merely waved a hand to silence her.

"You'd better be ready by the time we get there, or we'll leave for lunch without you—don't use that excuse with me!" he replied quickly, though his cheeks had turned a faint pink as he glanced towards his friends. As Kadaj mused about what she could've said to embarrass him, Lloyd sighed in defeat. "Whatever, just be decent. Bye."

Daisy was sniggering as Lloyd put his phone away, and he merely glared childishly at her as the train pulled into the station. Standing up from his seat Kadaj wanted nothing more than to get back into the cooler air of the platform, and lead the way off the train by pushing a few people back into their seats to clear a path for himself to the doors.

"What did she say?" Simon asked Lloyd, walking behind Kadaj and taking advantage of his lead.

"Nothing. She should be ready by the time we get there," Lloyd replied quickly, pulling up his sleeve to look at his watch.

"Actually, you'd better get your lunch. By the time we get there you'll miss the train back," he said and Daisy nodded as she linked arms with Simon.

"Okay, we'll see you back at school." And with a cheerful wave back at them the pair was off down the street. With his hands resting in his jeans' pockets, Lloyd looked at Kadaj.

"Are you coming with me?"

Passing the turn down to the Seventh Heaven, they traversed at least another six streets before they seamed to head down a quieter, calmer looking road, closer to the outskirts of Edge. The semi-detached houses lined the street down either side, ending with a dead end turning point behind a different row of terraced buildings. Each pair was different to the next in some way, either there was a veranda over the door of one and not the other, or the window frames had recently been replaced. If the cars were not parked on the pavements there would be more space to walk; it was merely the fact that the five vehicles were parked strategically and cluttered the road.

Each house had its own very small front garden with walls, hedges or fences to separate them, the gates varying with each path to the front door. They were mostly tidy metal gates with bars and twisting patterns, galvanised or painted for a shiny finish, but the further down the street Kadaj looked, the more unkempt the gardens seemed to become.

"Here we are." Walking to a gate within a trimmed green hedge, Lloyd pushed it open and lead the way up to the white front door. As Kadaj kicked the gate shut behind him there was a booming bark from within the house, making him tense as he stopped and stared at the bright pink walls. He hadn't been warned of dogs… Walking up behind Lloyd, he prepared himself for drool, indecency, and clumsy paws all over his feet the moment he entered.

Without knocking Lloyd merely walked in, and caught a large black Labrador by the studded collar when it tried to run past him.

"Claudia?" Pulling the large creature back from the door as Kadaj entered, he guided the creature into a different room and closed it inside. Stepping up onto the first step upstairs, the dark haired young man looked up. "Are you almost ready?"

"Hold on a second!" came the reply, making him sigh before looking back at Kadaj, who was looking in the mirror on the wall behind the front door.

"Since you'll be here tonight, I may as well give you a brief tour of the house."

He gestured around them.

"This is the hall, obviously." In the space under the stairs all the shoes were kept with the bags and some boxes right at the back, with a row of five coat hangers by the door covered in coats. The stairs followed the walls and turned back on themselves as they reached the next floor, though a few things like jackets and shoulder strap bags had been abandoned on the bottom banister. A dark green carpet covered the floor and up the stairs, the walls a light cream colour whilst the skirting boards and ceilings were white.

"The room where the dog is is the front room, where the computer and the dining table are, but I'll wait until Gerard's out of there before showing you around," he explained, before walking forward to the next door that was open. "This is the living room, and the shelves by the television are where they keep their extensive DVD collection. Though it had shrunk a little since Tabitha moved out."

A wide dresser with a mirror was the first thing that Kadaj saw as he entered the room, covered with small models and statuettes, with a photograph or two dotted amongst a lot of random possessions in large decorative bowls. There was another lower table against the opposite wall, the chimney separating it from the other side where the television and the aforementioned DVD collection resided. There was a window that took up most of the wall at the other side of the room that overlooked the garden, a straight-backed armchair close to the bookshelf that opposed the television. Behind the door was a chequered sofa of red and a darker cream colour than the walls, reminding him of the strange strawberry cream-flavoured sweets that the brash ninja girl had offered to him when she had visited earlier that week. Between it and the chair was a coffee table of sorts covered by a green blanket and held more random items, like papers or spare clothes and several television remotes of different designs. A grand red armchair was in front of the gas fire, clear of anything like the sofa, which only had a few cushions and a blue blanket thrown across it that had obviously been used recently.

Heading back into the hall, Lloyd went to the third door.

"This is the kitchen—" He stopped when there was a loud thud upstairs that caused both to look up, and Kadaj could've sworn that Claudia was falling down the stairs before she seemingly leapt from the bottom step and into the front room as she pushed the door open.

"I'm almost ready! Just hold on a sec, then we can go!" she said as the black hound rushed from the room. With his tail wagging enthusiastically he went towards Kadaj with his tongue lolling out, before Claudia reappeared and yanked Gerard back into the other room.

"Get back here!" she hissed, closing the door again and leaving the young remnant feeling rather confused. Was her dog any different to any of the other uncouth beasts he'd met around Edge?

"For someone who's only just woken up, you're incredibly active," said Lloyd, leaning against the door as they waited.

"I only said I was still in bed, not that I'd only just woken up," she answered, before there was a sharp whisper of, 'out of the way, Gerard!'. Soon enough Claudia rejoined them in the hall, her bag hanging at her side as a pair of navy and white Converse boots with red laces covered her feet, and a black beanie hat with a badge of a pink cartoon sea star was on her head. With a smile she pulled the front door open.

"Shall we?" she asked, keeping Gerard in the front room by standing in the way.

"Don't you think you should button your shirt up a little more?" asked Lloyd, gesturing to her front. The strap of her bag ran across her chest, and when she looked down she realised that her blouse had been pulled back slightly between her breasts and was showing her dark coloured top underneath. Cocking an eyebrow at him, she smirked.

"Don't you think you should keep your eyes to yourself? Just get your ass out that door, will you?" she replied, and he nodded as he went to the front door. "I swear: you're more worried about how I look than I am!" she laughed as Kadaj headed out after him, before turning back to look at Gerard the dog. Kadaj stood in the doorway and watched her curiously, wondering what she was doing now.

"Whatever you do, Gerard, please don't pull the table cloth off the table again. Mum'll be home soon, so you can annoy her instead of me!" she said quietly, before stroking his head one last time as she stood up and straightened herself out again. When she turned and found Kadaj still stood in the doorway, she jumped in surprise.

"Whoa! You're quiet, man!" she said with a smile, before pulling her keys from her bag and picking up her school jumper from the banister. "Come on, or we'll miss lunch."

When walking back to the main run of the city, Kadaj found that Lloyd was far more talkative as he told Claudia of a movie he had watched the night before, and when describing one scene Kadaj realised he'd watched the same thing.

"… When he picked up the funny monkey statue, this huge boulder—"

"It was a man, not a monkey," Kadaj cut across, and Lloyd nodded after a momentary pause.

"…Yeah, that's it! Man, the first words you've said since we got on the train, and they're to correct me!" Lloyd whined, making Claudia snigger.

"He doesn't say much, but when he does it's straight to the point, and no bullshit!" she said, bringing a smug smirk to Kadaj's features. It was reassuring to know that they didn't think he talked rubbish.

"I bet you can't get to the top of that wall without falling off at least twice." They'd visited the bakery that Simon had mentioned, and were now walking slowly back to the train station. Looking at the brick wall ahead of them, Lloyd handed his chicken tikka pastie to Claudia before bushing his hands off on his jeans.

"You are so totally on! Just watch this!" he said confidently, before running to the wall and jumping up. His leap was a little over calculated though as he easily reached the top, the top half of him hanging over the other side whilst his legs were the only things keeping him up, but as Kadaj and Claudia watched they could see him slipping slowly. When there was a snigger from Claudia the silver haired teenager looked to find her holding up her phone with the camera active. Lloyd yelped something incoherently, before disappearing over the other side of the wall with a loud thud and making Claudia laugh again as she tried not to double over.

"Come on Claude! That isn't very nice!" the young man whined from out of sight, which only made her laugh harder as she held her sides.

His hands soon appeared over the top of the wall, but it was obvious that such a simple gesture was causing him some difficulty as he gripped the stone tightly.

"Uh, little help please! It's a lot higher from this side!" With a sigh Kadaj handed his own sandwich to the sniggering mess beside him before going up to the wall, and hoisted himself up and swung his leg over to sit on the top. Looking down at Lloyd, he found him standing on some flowerpots to get up to the height he was at. Cocking an eyebrow up at him, he leant against the wall with a soft sigh.

"I'm surprised you haven't pulled a rabbit out of a hat yet, mister 'I'm-so-incredible-at-everything'!"

"You're the one who said it," he replied with a sly smile, before reaching down to pick him up. At least he wasn't as childish about this as he was about his sword fighting.

"Claudia, get over here," he ordered, looking back over at the girl as she finally managed to stand up straight.

"Yeah?" He nodded for her to come closer to the wall, and like an obedient child she walked forward as she put her phone away. Reaching down again, Kadaj grabbed Lloyd by the knot of his tie and the front of his shirt, and hoisted him up onto the wall without much difficulty.

"Whoa!" Lloyd's hands were pushing against the wall underneath him as a repeat of his first attempt almost happened again. Slipping was inevitable though, which made him lucky that Claudia quickly stepped forward and caught him, helping him step down safely onto the ground as he supported his weight with his arms around her shoulders.

"Why did you dare me to do that?" he asked incredulously as Kadaj jumped down beside them, brushing off his trousers whilst Lloyd did the same to his front. Claudia shrugged.

"I dunno. I just thought it would be funny, I guess," she grinned, before patting him on the shoulder. "Besides, you didn't have to do it just because I said so."

"Yeah, well… it still wasn't very nice!" he whined, grabbing his lunch back from her as she smiled in amusement. Kadaj took back his own food as well. She did have a point though: as funny as it was to watch, the reason why Lloyd had tried to jump over the wall still escaped him. None the less, they made their way back to the train station.

"Hey guys, I found a cocktail recipe book." Stepping back into registration, they found Simon sitting amongst a group on the next table, though he stood up and came to join them as they took their own seats at their usual table. It was quiet around them, and as Kadaj put his bag on the desk he realised why when he found no curly haired brunette sat amongst them. Lloyd, on the other hand, gave Simon a confused look.

"What? You _found_ a recipe book? In school?" he asked dubiously, before his bespectacled friend shrugged.

"No, not exactly 'found'. I'm borrowing a book from Lance on Monday, and it has a few of the drinks Claudia's sister wanted."

"Oh! Well done! I bet Claude'll be happy with you!"

"Why would Claudia's sister want it?" Kadaj asked, confused. Tifa always kept those sort of things out of Marlene and Denzel's reach, but he'd found them one day earlier in the week when looking for a drink. Some of them looked interesting, but when he went to investigate some of the bottles that were suggested that were around the bar, they were either fake or full of water.

"Why else? She wants some interesting drinks at the wedding reception!" Lloyd said with glee, rubbing his hands together.

"They're not exactly hard to find. There are at least five of them around the bar. I didn't even have to look that hard." Both boys gave him a blank look that always made him feel rather awkward, before they looked at each other.

"Maybe…?" mumbled Simon, and Lloyd looked back at the remnant in a way that seemed dangerous by now.

"You should bring them over sometime! We'll look through 'em, try a few out; that kind of stuff!"

"If I can, I will." The thought of alcohol was a little worrying as well. He'd seen the effects on some of the idiots at the bar, but then again they drank in excess and it wasn't really surprising to watch them falling over their own shadows. Lloyd grinned deviously, and soon his phone was out and pressing in a message with speed, most likely to the nerd in the other class.

"…But then the glass fell anyway, and I got the blame for it! I couldn't believe it!" Never in his life had Kadaj been so inclined to break a few thousand necks. Their Weapons and Combat lesson had been cancelled since Tribal had a meeting, meaning he could've spent the afternoon doing something a little more pleasurable, like tormenting Tifa in some ludicrous way. Blocking the taps behind the bar seemed like fun, though maybe she would've figure out by now that it wasn't Denzel since he was still in school… But at least they had managed to hang out in the common room. Lloyd had found a cricket bat and tennis ball, and with Lance, John and Mikey they'd managed to break three of the light covers and hit Helena in the arm. And luckily enough they'd managed to pick up the pieces before Mr Smith came upstairs, but he seemed suspicious of the fact they were sitting calmly around the room and grinning innocently at him. Once he left again the music was blasted from the stereo, and by the time the bell had rung at half three Lloyd had managed to arrange the chairs into a circle in the middle of the room, and stack the rest like the old Temple of the Ancients before climbing on top of the vending machine. Claudia had returned at the beginning of fifth lesson, and had consequently been jumped on when she entered as Lloyd leapt from the machine from his first climb.

Now they were on the train back to Edge. All six of them, Lloyd Simon, Daisy, Claudia, Sophie, and himself, were packed onto the back seat of the compartment, their bags underneath them to make more space, and the nerd was sat in the corner speaking to Lloyd about something her dog had done. Well, complaining was more the word of it, though the dark haired boy was laughing at her as she whined. Daisy was grumbling about her double White Magic lesson as Simon stared out the window, whilst Sophie listened to her headphones and played with her phone in the middle. Occasionally Daisy would nudge Simon to get his attention, and he would turn to her for a moment, but once she had started speaking he would look back out the window and nod occasionally to her conversation until he was nudged again. Kadaj was sitting between Lloyd and Sophie, his earphones in again as he sent a message to Cloud. He was surprised that he hadn't seen anyone from the blonde's circus troupe that day, especially at lunchtime. Maybe they were actually trying to be inconspicuous…

"I call shotgun on Melee!" Lloyd suddenly piped up, nudging the remnant in the process and making him shove him back. There was a yelp from Claudia before Lloyd started sniggering, and was soon pushed back into Kadaj.

"Don't be an idiot!"

An important question came to mind for Kadaj, one that he found to be important to ask since he was obviously going to be coming into contact with this 'Melee' thing.

"What's Melee?" he asked, and as with many of his questions to the nerd she stared at him like he had just uttered something frightfully shocking.

"Oh holy mother of all things that are holy! You don't know Melee?" she exclaimed, and when he shook his head she seemed ready to talk his ear off. Luckily for his ear, Lloyd brought an arm around her shoulders and covered her mouth before she could start, and sighed as he shook his head.

"Don't start! The last rant was an hour long, and we almost missed the train home!" he told her making her glare at him before he nudged her gently. "Licking my hand won't work either."

Instead of releasing her to let her explain, Lloyd turned to Kadaj instead. Claudia was trying to pull his hand away, but it was a futile attempt as he merely pulled her head up against his arm to keep his hold on her firm.

"It's a game where you can beat up other people on a set level with loads of different items. The only reason she gets really hyped up about it is because she loves the thing, and can't believe that people haven't played it," he explained, before looking back at Claudia. "Kadaj probably has a life outside the bar, Claudie. He definitely has one outside of video games, at least." The glare continued, before she sighed and rolled her eyes in defeat. "No mindless rambling?" A mutter similar to 'I will kill you' came from behind his hand, and he smiled before wiping his hand on her sleeve. "Good girl!"

"Are we going to get any movies to watch? I doubt anybody brought anything good," said Daisy, before Claudia gestured to Sophie sitting in the middle.

"Sophie has a few, but if you don't like any of them I guess we can go and rent some out or something," she explained. Sophie looked up in surprise, pulling out an earphone in the process.

"What?"

-:xXx:-

The dog exploded into an unforgiving series of barks again as they came up to the door of Claudia's home, but unlike at lunch time she didn't bother holding back the Labrador. Walking straight into the front room, she left everyone to fend for themselves.

"Hi Gerard!" Sophie exclaimed happily, petting the excited dog happily as he sniffed her leg, before she followed Claudia into the front room. Soon enough he went on to Daisy, who knelt down to stroke him, laughing as he tried to lick her face, and letting Simon and Lloyd walk past her without being attacked. A little confused, Kadaj dropped his bag along with everyone else's under the stairs, and watched as everyone seemingly vanished from the hall, leaving him with Daisy and the dog.

"Hey Claudie, do you have any hot chocolate?" Lloyd called from the kitchen, and there was a clinking noise like cups from behind the semi-closed white door.

"Can you make me some?"

"Ooh, and me!"

"Me too!"

"What—hey! I'm not making four cups of hot chocolate!"

"Aw, Lizziekins! Please! You're really good at making it!" Standing up from the floor Daisy left the dog and went to the kitchen, and before he knew where to go Kadaj was being sniffed and slobbered on.

"Hey Kadaj, where'd you go?" Relief wasn't quite what he felt at first when Simon came out of the living room, but when the boy with glasses saw Gerard he shook his head with an amused smile. Clicking his fingers, the dog's attention quickly turned to him. "C'mon dog. I'll let you out," he said, grabbing the collar and tugging the creature to the kitchen. Thank Ifrit for Simon…

"Kadaj, do you want anything to drink?" Daisy's voice came from the kitchen.

"Uh…"

"If you don't answer, you'll get hot chocolate like the rest of them," Lloyd replied.

"Fine, whatever," he told them as he went into the front room, curious to know what the host and her friend were doing.

Sitting in a large black armchair on wheels, the nerd was in front of a computer on a desk in the corner behind the door, whilst speaking to Sophie as she sat at the table in the centre of the room. The background on the screen was a picture of an ocean with a fork of lightning down the side of the shot, and all the picture things were arranged on either side. She'd opened the media player, but it was still starting up or something since there was no music at all. When he stepped into the doorway, both looked at him and grinned a moment later.

"Hi!" said Claudia, baring her teeth.

"Uh, hi…" he replied, giving them both a suspicious look before stepping out again.

In the living room, Simon had returned and was looking through the collection of DVDs next to the television. Every so often he would pick out a box, until a group of five were in his hands, though when he noticed Kadaj he merely nodded once in greeting.

"What are you doing?" asked the remnant, picking up the DVD on top. 'Mallrats'…?

"Picking out movies. We normally just hang out upstairs when it gets late so her parents don't get picky about wanting the TV. We just have to be a little more quiet after one," he explained, noting the confused look on his face.

"What about this video game thing that Claudia was on about?"

"That's upstairs too, but we can't bring that down. Her parents are really uptight."

"Hey Kadaj, get your scrawny ass in here!"

In the kitchen, the smell of hot chocolate was already strong in the air, the kettle in the corner of the room still steaming slightly. It was a rather small kitchen compared to the Seventh Heaven, with only a single window above the sink, which was bare of any dishes except for the few mugs in front of the microwave that were being used. There was an electric cooker between the two cabinets in front of the door on the way in, whilst the white microwave and kettle were in the corner between it and the sink with a HAKER radio and a coffee maker. On the other side of the sink were a pair of white machines, one on top of the counter whilst the other was underneath, which Kadaj assumed were the washing machine and drier by the small pile of clothes in front of them. In the second corner were a bread bin and toaster and a few storage tins, hidden in the shadow of the machine on top of the counter. The fridge-freezer was stood next to it, easily taller than him by about a head and a half, with a few plastic bottles and a blue storage box on top with the cobwebs. A plastic basket was in front of the machine on the floor, stacked high with clothes, dish cloths, plastic bags, magazines, and a black bent cake rack, leaving a distinct path between it and a chair against the wall opposite it to the other door. There were a few old newspapers on the floor by the fridge which kept the inner door leading to the next section open, where a side door leading into the back garden was hidden. He could only tell it was there because of the sunlight shining in from that direction.

With five different mugs on the counter in front of him, Lloyd was stirring each one in turn; three of them with a spoon of their own whilst he alternated between the last two with a single spoon. He hummed something to himself as Daisy put the milk away, before picking up the kettle and pouring water into each one. The brunette was soon humming along as well, and picked up a mug without a spoon before going back into the hall.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts…!"

Lloyd picked up the other spoonless mug, and gestured to Kadaj to pick up one as he blew the surface.

"Aren't you lucky! You get first choice!" he joked as he followed Daisy. He looked over all three, and picked the least full one before leaving the kitchen as well. A quick glance into the living room let him find Simon and Daisy still browsing through the DVDs, whilst Lloyd was stood in the doorway of the front room.

"Get it yourself you lazy cow! I made all of them and no one's said thank you!" he replied suddenly to a sentence Kadaj hadn't heard. Claudia was soon on her feet, and went to Lloyd before squeezing him ridiculously tight.

"Aw, thank you for the hot chocolate, Lizziekins!" she cooed, before releasing him and slapping him around the back of the head. "But don't call me a lazy cow! That's just mean!"

"Then go get it yourself! And stop Gibbs-styling me!" he shot back, smacking her in the same fashion as she walked past him to the kitchen. Sophie was still watching him with a sad-looking pout, making him sigh in agitation as he sat in the computer seat. "Go get it yourself." Instantly the pout was replaced with a glare.

"You evil pie…"

As she left the room, Lloyd sipped his mug of what smelt like coffee before looking at Kadaj again, one eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"What are you: a lamb?" he asked, making Kadaj snort as he rolled his eyes and made the boy laugh, before he seemed to remember something and stood up again. "Oh, I haven't finished showing you around! Come on, you'll need to know which one's Claudia's room. It's where we normally hang out when her parents are in," he said, pushing past him once again and heading up the stairs, his red and green striped socks being the last thing to vanish around the corner. Bringing another hand to his mug, the young remnant followed him with a little more care up the stairs, just in case he spilt any of his own drink.

"Right, this is Claude's room." Standing outside the first white door in the upstairs hall, Lloyd gestured roughly towards it before pushing down the handle. There was a white sheet of paper stuck at eye level on the door, with 'WALK THIS WAY' written in large black letters covering most of it with an arrow pointing down the hall, and 'that's it, just keep walking' in a smaller type underneath. 'Talk this way' and 'Ya, like this, ya' had been added on as well in a different writing style, and strange yellow and pink cartoon characters where stuck along one side, giving it an odd, almost uneven look. Stepping in behind Lloyd, he feared that he would see more of the sort, but he was oddly surprised.

Looking at the wall that separated the room from the hall, he found it plastered with photographs and posters and pictures, creating a mismatched collage across the cream coloured paint. There were two beds on either side of the room, separated by a window, a desk and a chair, both of which were covered with possessions that almost hid them from view. A wooden chest of drawers was opposite the door, with a wide silver television on top and a funny black square with four wired sticking out of the front, and more of what he assumed were DVDs next to it. A tall black shelf was against the wall beside it, facing the bed, and looked as if it had recently been cleaned due to the lack of dust on it compared to the TV. Both were almost inaccessible due to the amount of random crap on the floor, mostly shoes, used bags and more clothes. There was another door by the black shelves that he guessed was a cupboard of some sort, and a mirror was beside that as well. A poster for something called 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' was directly beside the door, and many other posters were on the cupboard door amongst the photos, including two 'Pharmaceutical Love Affair' Posters and one about some pirates.

The beds were very different. One had plain white sheets and a navy duvet, seemingly untouched and unbothered by the rest of the room, whilst the other was (like the floor and desk) covered in spare clothes, some cardboard boxes, papers, books, a towel, hair straighteners, and a tan and brown messenger bag. From the ceiling, hung from six little hooks, dangled wind chimes, dream catchers and glass lanterns. Each one was rocking gently in a breeze coming in through the slightly opened window.

Walking down a space on the floor that wasn't covered with stuff, Lloyd stood by the covered bed as he looked at the desk lined alongside it.

"I would tell you you can't sit on Claudia's bed, but there isn't much point…" he mumbled, obviously distracted as he reached out to pick something up. "What's this…?"

"Lloyd? Kadaj? Where are you?" Claudia yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm just showing him around! We'll be down in a sec!" was Lloyd's reply, even though he'd put his mug down and was flicking through a magazine he'd found on the desk. "Holy shit…!"

"What?" Kadaj grunted, stepping forward and looking over his shoulder. The pages were displaying pictures of women in lacy, flimsy lingerie draped across chairs and beds, the occasional whip or handcuffs in view as well.

"This is a Jane Winters' catalogue… You'd think they were trying to sell this stuff to guys the way they pose!" he replied in a hushed voice, turning to the next page. Rolling his eyes, Kadaj sipped his hot chocolate. It wasn't that interesting…

"Lloyd? What are you doing?" When Claudia started stomping up the stairs, Lloyd quickly folded the magazine lengthways in half, before stuffing it in his back pocket and pulling his shirt over it to hide it. The silver haired remnant cocked a questioning eyebrow at him, but the boy merely held a finger to his lips before Claudia stepped in. At Lloyd's sheepish grin, she gave them both a suspicious look.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Well, we were just leaving, I guess. Right Kadaj?" said the dark haired young man, picking up his mug again.

'_But why keep a magazine that's full of half-naked women? That's boring…'_


	14. Sunrise

Reason this chapter's taken so long is because of Death Note. Don't ask.

--

14. Sunrise

Light swept through the trees and crept through the branches, casting dark shadows across the faces of those fast asleep amongst them. A bird was somewhere up above, singing shrilly as the day began, and caused a chorus of groans to issue into the morning air.

"Urgh… someone turn that stupid thing off…!"

"Alright… hold on…" There was a gentle flapping of small wings towards the top of the tree, and with a click the singing stopped. But it was too late; he was awake, and no amount of rolling around would solve it.

"Uh oh!" When he attempted to move again, the bark vanished from underneath him and he yelped, clenching his eyes shut. There were several inquisitive 'kupo's from above as he landed in a pile of leaves, and once he was sat up he opened his eyes to look around.

"You 'kay, kupo?" Spitting leaves out of his mouth, he looked up into the branches of the tree, which was glowing white and was covered in dark purple leaves, he found two of them occupied by furry, catlike creatures with pom-poms sprouting from their heads. He cocked his head to one side, his brow furrowed.

"…Kupo?" It was supposed to be a 'what?', but all that came out was that curious-sounding word to the dark furred creature that had addressed him. It was a very dark brown, almost black, with red wings and a fluffy scarlet pom-pom, whilst the other was a light chestnut colour with an emerald green pom-pom and dark purple wings, only its fur seemed to be a little more like a fluffy mane around its neck.

They jumped down and landed next to him, and the dark brown and red one offered a paw to help him up.

"I guess you're alright." Kadaj ignored Lloyd's furry paw and got to his feet by himself, before looking down at his body to brush it off. Just as he'd thought, he was in the body of one of these odd, squinty-eyed, red-nosed, catlike things, but at least he was an appealing silver, yet the reason why the lower half of him was striped white escaped him. He looked up, and found a turquoise coloured pom-pom over his head, though even in the rays of the light through the leaves it had an oddly green hue.

"Kupo! Hi Kadaj!" Daisy screeched excitedly, before leaping on him and knocking him to the ground with a hug that winded him, especially since she seemed to double in size before landing.

"Kupo…" he groaned weakly, blowing his flopping green pom-pom out of his face as he attempted to recover.

"Come on you two! We have to go and save the pig, kupo!" Lloyd suddenly informed them, pointing out across the fields around the. To the west (the direction he was pointing in), the land turned to white in a snowstorm, a towering hill in the centre that faded dismally to grey barely visible to them from this distance. With a shrill giggle that made his ears sting, Daisy stood up and reached for their furry paws in glee, and hoisted him to his feet before dragging them into the field. Skipping through the grass, all three were merrily humming.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts! Here they are a-standin' in a row!" they sang.

"Big ones!"  
"Small ones!"  
"Some as big as your head!" Lloyd ended as they went down the line.

"STOP!" The snowy wasteland came to them a lot faster than he'd anticipated, looking like a wide white wall in front of them. Skipping was obviously an effective way of travel… Though the source of the yell was unclear. There was no one in sight. or at least in clear sight, around the snowy plane.

"Who's there?" Lloyd called into the snow, before all three jumped back when an amber ball suddenly appeared out of nowhere, right in front of them in the wall of snow. After a brief pause there was a small gasp, before something at the other end of the yellow ball sneezed, revealing a grey squinty-eyed, red-nosed, catlike thing sitting on the white ground. He stood up as the snow that had hid him glittered softly to the ground at his feet, before pushing a pair of thick glasses further up his nose.

"Hi, yeah, you can't go any further," he said. The once pleasant group of three stared blankly at him.

"Why not?" asked Kadaj, and Simon pointed towards the hill.

"The pig's got a guard, like. It's dangerous to go out there, kupo."  
"Nothing's going to stop us saving the pig! It's our destiny!"

"There's zombies, kupo. Really horrible, moogle-eating ones, like. Dead, too." 'Kupo' kept sounding more like 'koopoh' each time… The three fell silent, and cast each other a nervous glance.

"Z-zombies…?" Lloyd mumbled. But Daisy soon solved their dilemma.

"We'll deal with them when we find them!" she screeched in excitement, grabbing their paws and dragging them into the snow.

"Dizzy, stop grabbing my hand, kupo! I'm not a child!" the dark furred squinty-eyed, red-nosed, catlike thing whined pathetically, though Kadaj couldn't quite understand how as he clung onto the speeding Daisy for dear life.

Soon enough, the snow thickened around them, almost up to their neck if they'd been standing still, but Daisy still managed to plough through without much difficulty. The hill was definitely closer, but the swirling storm still made it grey to their eyes and made it difficult to make out, so Kadaj wasn't sure how much closer they realy were until Daisy stopped. Unfortunately she let go of them, and both he and Lloyd flew headlong into a mound of snow.

"For the love of Ifrit, stop doing that! Kupo!" Lloyd seethed, standing up and shaking the snow from his fur as he muttered the final word in an exasperated fashion like he was cursing. Kadaj was a little less mobile though, and was lying on his back on the ground, his stumpy legs hanging over him as they leant up against something.

"Lol!"

"Are you alright, kupo?" asked Lloyd, waddling over to him. With a groan, he rolled onto his stomach before stumbling to his feet.

"I'm as good as anyone is after being bowled into a rock…" he grumbled, before rubbing his bum. "Ow."

"Whoa! There's someone under there, kupo!"

At Daisy's squeaky exclamation, both boys went to the Kadaj-shaped hole. Looking into the crevice created by his small body, they quickly stepped back with a gasp at what was staring back at them.  
"That was no rock, kupo…" mumbled the darkest of the three, before they stepped back again when the mound of snow started to crumble.

"Urgh…"

"ARGH! ZOMBIE! RUN FOR YOUR FURRY LIVES, KUPO!" screeched Daisy, running around in circles.

"Bon bons!"

A grey squinty-eyed, red-nosed (or rather purple-nosed), catlike things sat up from the snow, its fur patchy in places whilst only a wisp of sky blue fluff hung from the wire-thing protruding from its head, looking almost like a will-o-wisp flame. Getting to its feet, it reached out hungrily towards them before lurching forward, one of its frozen wings breaking off as it muttered 'bon bons' again. Gripped with fear, Kadaj clung to Lloyd, who did the same to him, before both screamed childishly in terror and tried to run. But the snow made it hard to move because of its depth.

"Oh holy kupo! Someone save us!" yelped Lloyd.

All at once the storm stopped, making the snow melt as the sun came out instead and smiled eerily down at them with a toothy grin. The two catlike things and the zombie all looked up in confusion at the odd weather patterns, unlike Daisy who was still running around in circles like a headless chocobo.

"What the… kupo?" mumbled Kadaj, watching the snow slowly vanish around them. But… not all of it seemed to be melting…

"More zombies!" Daisy cried, before running up to Lloyd and climbing up onto his large head, shaking worse than a wooden shed in an earthquake. As all three clung helplessly onto each other, the crowd of three thousand zombie catlike things started closing in on them, each one reaching out to them with their freakish wailing of 'bon bons'.

"Now we'll never save the pig!" Lloyd whined pathetically, gingerly nudging one of the zombies away with an outstretched leg when it lumbered too close. Subsequently, the soft jolt made its nose fall off, making him squeal and start cringing in disgust. "Ew! Ew! Bloody kupo ew!"

"You pitiful carrots! Now you shall fear Mother's wrath, squirk!" Once again, when a distraction was wrought upon them, the group of three (and the group of three thousand around them) looked up the mountain.

"Oh no! It's the dastardly SephiePig!" Lloyd exclaimed as Daisy started whimpering on his head, her paws over her squinty eyes. Unable to believe the name, Kadaj stared at the creature standing on the ledge above them. It was roughly the same size as them in stumpy body form, only its ears were floppy and instead of a red nose it had a large snout. Resting his trotters roughly on his hips, SephiePig let out a cruel laugh.

"Yes, 'tis I! And now, you worthless squinty-eyed, red-nosed catlike things that are against me for reasons I'm not clear of yet: prepare to meet your doom, squirk!" he snorted, his black leather trench coat fluttering in a breeze they definitely weren't feeling in their crowd of three thousand zombies. Brushing long silver locks and a spiked ball that looked more suitable for a mace out of his face, he stood proudly over them. "Mother will be so pleased with me!"

* * *

"Lu-au! If you're hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat—" There were several agitated groans through the room, one coming from his own throat that he couldn't help, as some kind of grating voice started singing. There was movement beside him, and an elbow jabbed his arm before the music surfaced and was almost instantly switched off. Claudia sighed from the other side of Lloyd, who was leaning against Kadaj at the moment as he'd leant against him whilst they slumbered, but the weight was soon relieved from the remnant as both sat up.

"Stupid phone…" The thick blue duvet was still across their legs, though the nerd had pulled it up over her shoulder at some point during the night, making his toes rather cold as they curled up around the edge of the sofa pillow. Curling up into his corner, Kadaj wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep for the rest of the day.

They hadn't gone to sleep until at least half three, but that was still better than the time he was normally asleep by back at the Seventh Heaven. They'd passed by there briefly for Kadaj to change and pick up spare clothes for tomorrow, before going on to 'Hog's', a DVD rental store on the next street up that he'd never seen before. It took them almost an hour to leave between choosing a DVD from the thousands in the converted house, and Claudia and Lloyd and Sophie speaking to the man behind the counter, called Bill. He was commenting actively on the fact that they 'were young and had so much more to do with life, but instead they were watching the third 'Pirates of the Ancient's Dread' and drinking themselves to death', which confused Kadaj since there had been no mention of alcoholic beverages prior to that conversation. But then again, Lloyd had quickly contradicted Bill by prodding the desk and saying there were no drinks this time around. It was the 'this time around' that had worried him in the end.

On the way back there had been no sign of anyone watching him, from the Turks or his big brother's gang of Materia-hogging numskulls. If anything, the streets were bare of any life until they passed by the road that lead to the train station from the square, which he'd noticed had been cleared of debris but was surrounded by warning and construction signs. The thought made him smirk as he watched the builders at work in the giant hole, before being nudged lightly by Simon to make him rejoin the conversation and carry on walking.

In the end they only watched three movies (two from Claudia's collection and the one they had borrowed from Hog's), and the rest of the evening was spent discovering videogames. At first the controller felt very awkward in his hands, even though they were shaped specifically to fit them, but as time went on he found it was fairly natural to place his fingers on the buttons. The first game, the Melee one, was difficult because Claudia gave the briefest explanation before starting a fight, and his space-suited character was either flung off the stage or he accidentally leapt off instead. Once he'd finally managed to get the hang of it the game was changed, and he was trying his best to shoot zombies, or things that resembled them closely, and each time one lumbered close he ended up getting hurt. What made it worse was the fact that he had three goes because he died so quickly, and the three sitting on the bed were laughing at him (namely Sophie, Claudia and Lloyd). The only reason Daisy wasn't joining in was because she was worse than he was, and Simon was trying his best to help them. Laughing was inevitable though when a fat man wielding a chainsaw chased after Daisy, a brown paper bag over his head and showing one bloodshot eye that was only visible through a ripped hole when he caught the character and brutally removed his head. Daisy squealed, and even Simon couldn't bite back the laughter.

The sofa creaked a little when Lloyd moved to sit on his knees, and the blanket moved from his arm and made Kadaj grope hopelessly for it. His hand came into contact with denim several times, before Lloyd moved again.

"Kadaj, you kinky beast! I didn't know you loved my leg so much!" Opening his eyes he sat up and looked around, and realised his hand had been against his upper thigh. Scowling, he lifted his hand slowly before slapping the dark haired boy up-side the head, making him whine as he rubbed his new injury and Kadaj grabbed the blanket from the floor.

It had been around half twelve by the time they were downstairs, and arranged themselves on the sofas by one. Sophie had 'bagsied' the soda bed long before the afternoon had even started to grow dark, and Daisy refused to sleep next to Lloyd after some kind of indecent incident a few weeks earlier concerning the sofa, 'maitais', and an evening similar to what they had just had, so Simon was between her and Sophie. Claudia, who was annoyed about loosing the sofa bed, barely sympathised enough with Lloyd and Kadaj to let them sleep on the other sofa beside her, and reluctantly relinquished a broken blue and orange sleeping bag along with a working black and red one. They only had one pillow each though, whilst the freakishly selfish hermit-nerd hogged the rest with Kadaj and her own friend, and even brought down the duvet from her bed to keep them warm.

The room was still fairly dark, and even whilst squinting at the clock on the wall above the gas fire Kadaj couldn't quite see the hands.

"Jeezum crow, Claude! Who the hell sent you a text at… ten to seven in the morning?" Lloyd grumbled, leaning over the brunette to pick up her phone from the table and giving Kadaj an unwanted face full of Lloyd-ass. Definitely not what he wanted at ten past seven.

"Taylor… Asking how I am 'nd stuff…" came the grumbled reply, before Lloyd sat down again and leant heavily back against Claudia, shimmying down under the blanket again with a heavy sigh.

"Remind me to kick her ass the next time she visits…"  
"I'm going to go get a drink."

He had a feeling that his portion of the blanket would be gone by the time he arrived back at the sofa, but he didn't care so much since the room was very warm. It was the reason why he was thirsty at the moment. The kitchen was cooler by far as the early morning sun barely managed to ebb in through the window, a light mist making the world outside hazy to his eyes. Gerard the Labrador was already lying in the grass, his head raised and looking around in a way that made him look calm compared to how he was barking yesterday. Steam was slowly billowing form the kettle by the microwave, with two mugs already filled with tea, which he only assumed because of the tea bags.

Pulling open the cupboard closest to the door, he pulled out one of the plastic tumblers to pour himself some water, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He hated waking up at the crack of dawn, especially when he didn't have to. School wasn't exactly his ideal reason either, but at least it gave him an excuse to be away from the bar. Leaning back against the counter, he continued to stare out through the window. What he really wanted… was his bike.

"Alright! Let's go to the shopping district! I wanna see if these renovations are kick-ass or not!" Sitting on the now folded sofa bed, Daisy was pulling on her shoes as Kadaj lay across the gingham sofa, playing a game he'd found on Sophie's phone as they all prepared for their day out. After kicking Lloyd out of his place on the sofa, he'd managed to sleep until half ten instead, which was when Claudia's mother had burst into the room, exclaiming 'good morning' as the dog ran around, sniffing at them all enthusiastically until the nerd herself threw a pillow at her mother to make her leave. Now, Sophie was using hair straighteners similar to Tifa's on Claudia's hair, and Lloyd was sat cross-legged on the floor with Simon and some cards. They were playing a game similar to Solitaire: they both had five piles in front of them, with one to five cards in each ascending from left to right, and the remainder of the pack was split in two between them. At the same time they would flip the first card, and then start putting cards form their piles onto the revealed card in numerical order, like five on a six, a four on the five, then a different five on the four again. It made little to no sense to him…

"Ooh! I want to go to Masquerade! There's supposed to be some new things in today," Sophie said suddenly from in front of the mirror, before Claudia nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Yeah, so do I! Frank said he'd let us try some of them on after lunch!" she told them, before Daisy sat up a little straighter in curiosity.

"Really?"

"Yup! But he has lunch at twelve, so I guess we can take some time to look around the rest of the place fist," said Claudia, running her fingers through the section that had already been straightened, before gathering what was left and tying it up at the back in a small spiked bun. "But I've only got enough money for lunch..."

"I get the feeling you'll be scabbing off the rest of us," Sophie muttered as she handed the nerd the black hair-straighteners as she sat on the edge of the sofa seat. Glaring at he friend, Claudia snapped the straighteners at Sophie before playing with the back of Lloyd's hair, which made him fidget.

"Shut up Sophie! I won't need to borrow anything, you evil pie…" she growled, before picking out a lock and running it through the straighteners.

"Y'know, people wonder why I'm so effeminate… Having you playing with my hair every five minutes must be doing something to me."  
"Shut up lady man."

They were out of the house by half eleven, and were making their way along the street behind Claudia's house, the dusty back roads like a maze for any unsuspecting person who'd never been down them before. Unfortunately, that was the case for Kadaj, so following the small group was his best option at getting out before it was dark. They all seemed to know where they were going, and were barely concentrating on which roads they were going down, which worried him a little since he didn't like being lost. But as he'd already assumed, they knew where they were going.

"We should've eaten before leaving…" Claudia groaned, stretching her arms over her head as she spoke. Rolling his eyes, Lloyd shook his head in dismay before prodding her in the waist, making her whine in agitation.

"It was your house. You could've eaten if you wanted to."

"The though didn't really cross my mind…"

What exactly was this 'Masquerade' place? He hadn't asked any of his acquaintances yet, though he had already assumed that clothes were part of what it was about. Luckily he had managed to suppress a shudder at the though, and hoped he wouldn't be forced to try on more clothes. His first experience accompanied by Tifa and eventually his big brother was enough to last him a lifetime. He didn't have much money either when he though about it, only what Cloud had give him, and even then he wanted to save as much of it as possible. What use would his bike be if he couldn't buy the fuel for it? There was the obvious method of getting Cloud to pay for it as well, but that could result in less money for him in the long run, saying 'your money is going towards fuel for _your_ bike. Don't complain'. There honestly was no justice in the world.

Eventually they stumbled across a road he was familiar with, as they had walked down it earlier in the week as they had been planning to eat at the Shopping district one lunchtime. It was a lot busier than last time, and they all seemed to be walking in the same direction. The though of crowds made him a little uncomfortable, since he had no particular reason to be going to this district and therefore had no need to storm in and cause a scene, which was what he had the tendency to do. That was why he always let his brothers deal with crowds…

"Man… I hope we can actually get to the shop," Lloyd muttered as he looked over the crowd, before Daisy hooked her arm around his.

"I'll get you there! Don't worry Lizzie!" she said with a pleasant smile, making him pout childishly.

"I'm not a kid, Daisy! And stop calling me Lizzie!" As worrying recollections of his dream from this morning came crawling back across the marble floors of his mind, Kadaj quickly crossed his arms and tucked his hands safely and securely underneath in case any other unfortunate relapses happened. It was doubtful that Daisy would ever really throw him and Lloyd like that, but it was better to be safe than sorry. If any more déjà vu made itself apparent, he would be very concerned that they might mystically change into those fuzzy cat things.

The previously shut doors from his first visit down this road were now wide open, granting access into the large building beyond except for the fact that the walkway was particularly crowded, much to Kadaj's distaste. The fact that there were even people there annoyed him, but it was inevitable that there wouldn't be any peace in a public place. The masses varied, but from where they were walking he could mostly see mothers with young children, ranging from infants to around ten-year olds, who were walking begrudgingly behind them. Through the newly uncovered glass windows around the doors, the young remnant could see people walking up and down the steps to the next floor, whilst the second floor windows were lined with table and chairs and people enjoying a late breakfast or an early lunch. There was a soft tug on the front of his shirt, and before he knew it he was being dragged forward by Lloyd into the building.

Much to his surprise, it was very open and well lit inside, the roof made of domed glass with crossing support arches creating an intertwining pattern across the cloudy sky. There were shop fronts lining both sides of the building, benches arranged down the centre and around the main display, and as he gazed up at the towering structure he felt a tug of nostalgia play along through his chest. The five around him were gazing up at it as well, though his shocked expression fit in perfectly with their awe-struck faces and didn't seem to stir any curious questions.

"Amazing…!" Daisy gasped, halting in her tracks.

Like a mysterious giant, the glowing white tree stood before them seemed to have entranced many other on their way in. Hanging from chains made of clear plastic were thousands of glass hearts patterned with colour, creating dancing reflections across the floors and walls as spot lights, hidden within the earth the tree was planted in, shone up with rays of glistening white light. It was an odd sight to behold, yet still rather comforting as it reminded him of the Forgotten Capital. What surprised him more than that was that there was actually one of these trees outside the Capital. Of course it wasn't nearly as large as the others, but it was definitely close, and if it grew much larger it would break through the ceiling.

Soon enough, Lloyd had grabbed the front of his shirt again and was pulling him along after the others.

"Geez, I don't want to spend another ten minutes just standing here and staring at this tree!" the boy grumbled in agitation, before releasing his collar once he'd started walking by himself. Looking around a little absently, Kadaj felt puzzled as he continued after the small group, the sounds of eager shoppers and their footsteps suddenly roaring back into his ears like he'd gone momentarily deaf without realising it. Resting his hands in his pockets, he frowned: how long had he been watching that tree?

"We have forty minutes or something to look around, or ten minutes if we go and meet up with Frank and go with him to lunch at twelve." said Sophie, looking at her phone to see the time. Sighing as he looked at his watch, Lloyd shrugged.

"I don't want to go into any shops that I don't need to go into. It's just temptation."

"Yeah, 'cause you don't have any money either," Simon added in a bored voice, before smiling innocently when Lloyd rounded on him with an angry pout.

"Hey!"  
"You're so gay, Lloyd," said Claudia, sighing in disappointment. Soon enough he rounded on her instead, with an expression that was 'oh-so-unamused', yet she merely smiled at him.

"I still die a little inside every time you say that." The image of pieces of Lloyd dying and dropping off made the youngest remnant smile softly in amusement.

This shopping district was very new to him. The main building was very white, the floors made of white marble whilst thick pillars made of polished stone held up the walkways overhead. Hundreds of different shops and companies were displayed through large glass window, each one busy with people as they walked under the artificial lighting. But soon enough they were passing back outside under the cloudy sky, where more buildings like houses or multi storey shops were waiting, very similar to Hog's, the street busy with more people, like he'd only ever seen once before, which ended up with him trying to blow a lot of them up. Only this time they weren't all trying to save some children. And they were walking… He shook his head.

It was towards one of these remodelled houses that they were walking towards, a large sign over the door reading 'Masquerade' in calligraphic writing, coloured gold over a black background. Unlike other shops down the street this one was graced with two windows, the line down between the two making it evident that they had been two separate buildings at one point. Displays were in both windows: one with some kind of glittering gown with diamante-studded silver butterfly wings, and a witch-like outfit with a velvet cloak lined with red silk, whilst the other… He shuddered, and glared at the second window. What kind of crazy combination was this? Costumes and lingerie?

There was a soft chime of a bell over the door as they entered, and Sophie went straight to the desk ahead of them that faced the first window and looked out across the street. But Kadaj was more interested in looking around the shop first.

As he'd suspected, there were thousands of outfits on display, rack upon rack lining the walls as accessories, like more fairy wings and hats and oddly shaped wands hung from the high ceiling. Mannequins dressed as a treasure-laden pirate and a ninja dressed in black were poised on a podium in the centre of the floor, and a small note pad had been placed on the floor of the white stand between them with a pen. Another desk was over towards the back of the shop away from the view of the main desk, but was currently unoccupied. On the other side of the sop, things were arranged a little differently, and looked poles apart from the first area of the shop. He'd never seen so much lave in one place, and it made him feel a little odd, like he didn't know where to look, and so he looked around the first half of the shop to try and distract himself.

"Hi Frankendoodle! We're gonna go to lunch with ya!"

Bringing his eyes to the person Sophie was addressing, Kadaj merely glanced half heartedly at him until he heard his first comment.

"Hey guys! Who's that lady man standing next to you?"


End file.
